New York's Essex Market

The Essex Market, one of New York's most interesting small markets, is on New York's Lower East Side, specifically on Essex Street just North of Delancey. As the Lower East Side has become chic, so has the Essex Market added some very upscale vendors to meet the demand of the new foodies in the neighborhood. At the same time, the market retains its character as a local market serving the local Hispanic community, and vegetables, meats and Hispanic items are available at amazingly low prices.


On a recent trip, I bought some excellent 3-year old parmesan and New York State honey from Formaggio Essex, several (expensive) artisanal American cheeses from Saxelby's (see my post of November 7, 2008 on this wonderful cheese supplier), but also a pound of jalapenos for a dollar, and a 7-1/4-lb pork shoulder for $9.99 ($1.39 per pound) at Jeffrey's, a very well-regarded butcher. I was a little embarrassed to buy the totally non-organic pork, but I could not find a more fancy shoulder with the skin on at any of my normal uptown haunts. I passed on the pigs', calves' and cows' feet, which must make some wonderful Hispanic dishes.

The jalapenos, together with green peppers and San Marzano tomatoes, turned into Michael Chiarello's "Damn Hot Peppers," and the pork was fantastic (better, I think, than the grass-fed free range variety) as the same chef's "Forever Roasted Pork." The aged parmesan joined an assortment of Italian and Italian-style charcuterie from Salumeria Rosi on the Upper West Side (see my post of January 22, 2009 for more on Rosi).

Sorry, only one picture. Photography is inexplicably prohibited at the market (although I took this before being shooed off), allegedly because the market is in real estate owned by the City of New York. Go figure.

Bobby Jay

Paris - La Cure Gourmande

A wonderful candy store, which began operations in Balaruc-les-Bains (near Montpellier) in 1989, is making a big push in Paris. It opened a branch a couple of years ago in Bercy, and recently opened its third branch near the Opéra, at 49, avenue de l'Opera (several others will open within the year). The shops are very attractive, as are the goods they sell, most notably the hard candies (berlindises) and spectacular lollipops ("Choupettes"), as well as cookies, chocolates and calissons (a kind of dense almond cookie). Most things are available in bulk but also are offered in charming decorated tins.

A great place to go for gifts or simply to indulge oneself.

Bobby Jay

Paris - Sign of the Times

Here it is: a Japanese brasserie/tabac (although it calls itself a bistro). Many Japanese people live in Paris, and not just as representatives of Japanese corporations and banks. The neighborhood near the Opéra is full of Japanese restaurants, noodle shops (notably Kunitoraya, previously discussed in this blog) and food stores that cater to them. The Ventadour, pictured here, is different, being a traditional licensed tabac (which have concessions for tobacco and lottery tickets) attached to a corner brasserie but now serving Japanese food.

Paris has always been a magnet for people from around the world, and the Japanese appear to be there to stay.

Bobby Jay

Year-end in Paris II

Here are some pictures of year-end food displays in Paris: candied fruits and dried fruits from Bon Marché, caviar from Prunier, cakes from Fauchon and pâte de fruits from Hédiard. Can food really be this gorgeous?











Bobby Jay

Year-end in Paris I

As we have done for the last five years, my wife and I spent the last two weeks of the year in Paris.

For Parisians, this is a time to either leave town or enjoy a réveillon, a huge meal on Christmas or New Year's Eve. The réveillon is a multi-course extravaganza, featuring lavish foods, usually including foie gras, oysters, lobster and/or other shellfish (especially coquilles St-Jacques) and, depending on one's means, caviar and truffles. Desserts, of course, are at their most spectacular, as evidenced by Dalloyau's new "Diva," pictured above.

Whether you are traveling, eating or both, I wish you a Happy New Year!

Bobby Jay

The Ultimate Egg Cream

Gary's Perfect Egg Cream

My friend Gary has made a life-long effort to make the perfect chocolate egg cream, one even better than the ones he had in his youth in Brooklyn. He has granted me permission to share his recipe and technique.

Start with a 12-oz Coca-Cola glass. Fill the stem 3/4 inch with Fox's U-Bet Chocolate Syrup. Then add 3/4 inch of Fox's U-Bet Vanilla Syrup. Fill the rest of the stem with light cream. Fill the rest of the glass with selzer. Stir vigorously with a long spoon pushed all the way to the bottom of the glass.

Do not substitute milk for the light cream or fancy ingredients for the Fox's syrups. That might produce a good drink, but it would not be the real deal.

Bobby Jay

The Negroni Saignée

Negroni Saignée

I'm not much of a fan of mixed drinks, particularly vodka-based ones. But the Negroni Saignée, invented by Sam Clifton of the excellent restaurant Telepan, is a delicious adult cocktail: more bitter than sweet. Combine equal parts of Blood Orange Vodka, Aperol and white Lillet with a splash of Orange Bitters. Shake well in a cocktail shaker or (unless you're James Bond) stir in a pitcher. Serve straight up in a martini glass with a twist of orange peel. I keep the vodka frozen, chill the Aperol, the Lillet and the glasses to produce a very cold drink and cut down on dilution by the ice.

Bobby Jay

Jim Lahey's No-Knead Bread

Believe it or not, I made this . . .

I have been meaning to write about Jim Lahey's no-knead bread for some months, but now he has put out a book describing the method in beautifully illustrated detail, so my task is different. Lahey, who founded and runs the Sullivan Street Bakery, invented a virtually fool-proof method for baking crusty and delicious bread.

Essentially, you (i) mix together flour, water, salt and a tiny amount of yeast into a pretty sloppy mess, (ii) put it in a bowl for 12-18 (or more) hours until it more than doubles in volume, (iii) turn it out, fold it and place it on (and covered by) a dusted kitchen towel for about 2 hours, and (iv) bake it in a pre-heated very hot dutch oven, covered, for 30 minutes and then uncovered for 15-30 more minutes. Active work is about five minutes, although the process takes nearly a day.

. . . and this.

I have made this bread several times and it really is great. There is a huge amount of discussion on the Internet among the large community of bread bakers, including lots of useful insight and variations. Now, though, Lahey has put out My Bread, a lovely book that tells you everything you want to know about his method, and gives recipes for many breads using the same (or a similar) method, including whole wheat loaves, ciabatta, baguettes, flavored breads and pizza. I highly recommend this book. Pictured above and below are my first and tries based on Lahey's actual recipe from the book. The second is a really fantastic loaf of bread, crusty with just the right amount of bitterness.

Bobby Jay

Kyoto's Funahashi-Ya Sembei Store

Rice crackers (sembei or, in Kyoto, o-kake) are ubiquitous in Japan. The most famous emporium for these delicious crackers in Kyoto, Funahashi-Ya, is located at the west end of the Sanjo bridge. Founded in 1885, Funashi-Ya sells countless varieties from its picturesque Meiji period establishment.


Bobby Jay

Kyoto's Nishiki Dori Food Market

edamame (soy beans)

I love going to food markets and nowhere are they better than in Japan. Most department stores have serious food floors, usually in the basement, where luxury goods from all over the world are sold, along with cooked and uncooked fish, vegetables, meats and sweets. Most of the major French bakers and patissiers (such as Dalloyau, Eric Kayser Lenotre, Pierre Hermé, Ladurée) and chocolatiers (Jacques Hévin - I know, it's Belgian) have stands at the better stores. All is very neat and extremely appetizingly presented.

But my big treat is going to the covered market street in Kyoto, Nishiki Dori. Here the products are not international, but Japanese: pickles for which Kyoto is famous), fresh and salted fish, homemade crackers, miso paste, meat, tofu in all its forms, seaweed, fresh fruit and vegetables, cooked yakitori, nuts, etc. Much of it is not identifiable by a non-Japanese person (other than Elizabeth Andoh, an American authority on Japanese food, but she has lived in Japan for more than 40 years).

two approaches to miso pickles

Fortunately, the vendors are used to having their pictures taken, and I have some that give the flavor of the place. To see them, click on more below

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Pictured above: chestnut vendor (top), little fish (above left), eel (unagi) and sea eel (anago) (above right), tofu skin (yuba) (bottom left) and still more pickles (bottom right).

Bobby Jay

Japan - Kyoto's Ippodo Tea Store

A few months ago, I did a post on Mariage Frères, a great Parisian tea store dating from 1854. Ippodo, in Kyoto, has that beat by more than a century. Ippodo dates back to the year 1717, when founder Ihei Watanabe established a tea shop called OMIYA at Teramachi Nijo, just south of the Imperial Palace. It is still there, and still sells some of the best tea available in a picturesque setting: matcha, the ground tea used in the Japanese tea ceremony; gyokuro, a rich and mellow green tea; sencha, which Japanese drink several times a day; and bancha, coarse-leaf teas (including yanagi, hojicha and genmaicha).

While the people at the shop don't speak English, they have English materials - instructions and order forms, and a bilingual web site, at http://www.ippodo-tea.co.jp.

Bobby Jay

Japan - Naoshima Island's Benesse House: A Unique Museum/Hotel

On the obscure island of Naoshima is Benesse House, a modern art museum/hotel founded by a large Japanese publishing firm of the same name. Benesse House, built by the renowned architect Tadao Ando, is part of a larger art project that includes another museum by Ando and about a half dozen other modern art installations on the island. As is typical of Ando's buildings, every detail of the museum is planned to work in harmony with the excellent modern art collection it houses.

Staying and dining in the museum is a special treat, and literally one for many senses. We ate a lovely kaiseki lunch at a long table where half of us faced a large Sebastian Basquiat painting and the other half faced the sea, with their eyes led to the shore line by a series of shore line paintings by Sugimoto Hiroshi, one of the leading photographers of the world and a major collaborator on the Benesse Art Project.




Scattered around the hotel site are important sculptures . . .
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. . . and up the road is a ceramic scupture -- known locally as the gomi bako (trash can) -- by Mishima Kimio, a leading Japanese ceramic artist who has worked for decades in the pop tradition and who herself stands less than five feet tall.

My favorite thing on the island is the Chichu (literally underground) Museum, a masterpiece designed by Ando Tadao, where every step reveals a new vista combining sophisticated architecture and sunlight. The entire museum is underground, with open air courtyards and galleries lit only by natural skylights. It contains only seven works of art: four large Monet water lilies hung in a specially designed room that must be experienced, a relatively small James Turrell light sculpture, an entire Turrell room that explores (very successfully in my opinion) the essence of light and an enormous installation by Walter de la Maria that explores symmetry, light and mathematical relationships. (Unfortunately, photographs were not permitted in the museum.)

Although not easy to get to, Benesse House is truly a must!

Bobby Jay

Japan - Kyoto Italian Fare

After all the magnificent food described in the last several posts, finally . . . a delicious lamb chop, nicely prepared and presented!

Lamb Chop at Kyotonese, an Italian Restaurant in Kyoto

Bobby Jay

Japan - Gorgeous Kaiseki at Osaka Kitcho

After our tour ended, my exhausted wife and I visited clients of my wife's - an elegant Japanese mother and daughter - who took us to a breathtaking kaiseki lunch at Kitcho, in Osaka. Although we thought we had reached sensory overload on the tour, the beauty of this seasonably inspired meal proved irresistible, and we managed to eat it with gusto.

For more pictures, click more below.
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Bobby Jay

Japan - Kanazawa

One of the most enjoyable stops on our Japan tour was at Kanazawa, a beautiful city famous for its food (it seems every city in Japan is famous for its food). There the fine ceramist, Nakamura Takuo, in addition to showing us his contemporary take on Kutani-glazed ceramics, acted as our guide to the old part of the city and then as our host for a delicious meal prepared by his wife and served on his plates. pictures of work and lunch The food was excellent, and eating it off the artist's own plates definitely enhanced the experience. One of the exciting things about Japan is the way traditions persist in parallel with modernity, and the seasonality of the food and serving vessels is tangible evidence of this.

Nakamura Takuo Vase

Lunch Served on Nakamura Takuo's Plates

Bobby Jay