Gooseberry Fool and Gooseberry Crumble

I don't think we even get gooseberries in Australia. I'd certainly never seen them until I came to London. There are my Dad's favourite, cape gooseberries, known in the UK as physalis - a somewhat less pleasant name! But they are not even remotely similar.

Gooseberries look a little like grapes, but are apparently too tart to eat in their uncooked form. We tried these ones, though, and they actually tasted rather reminiscent of grapes and weren't too sour at all. Kyle thought they tasted a little like that equally rare and unusual New Zealand fruit, the feijoa.

They have a very limited season and are available only sporadically in our fruit and vegie shop. I can't really rely on them being there but bought a punnet two weekends in a row. So two very classic British Summer desserts in a row - Gooseberry and Elderflower Fool and Gooseberry Crumble.

The fool was a lovely blend of gooseberries, yoghurt and cream and was delicious served with some crunchy biscuits for texture.

The crumble was less successful. The gooseberries created so much juice that even though I poured a lot out, it still bubbled over so much that the crumble was quite soggy. I found the flavours pleasantly unusual, more tart than I expected from tasting the raw fruit. The excessive juice did taste delicious, all syrupy and sweet and the crumble (that wasn't drowned) was crunchy from the hazelnuts. Kyle, unfortunately, found the fruit a little too tart and the lack of crunchy crumble disappointing.

So overall, the gooseberries were a mixed result at best. The thing is, they are so rare, I'll probably cook them again next year anyway!


Gooseberry and elderflower fool
Serves 4

500g gooseberries
100g caster sugar
2 strips pared lemon zest
2 heads elderflower (optional)
3 tbsp elderflower cordial, or to taste
142ml pot double cream
150ml fresh ready-made custard
Sponge finger biscuits, to serve

1. Put the gooseberries into a saucepan (there is no need to top and tail them) with 2 tablespoons of the sugar, the lemon zest, and the elderflower heads, if using. Cook over a low heat until the juices start to run from the gooseberries, then cover and cook for 5 minutes or until the berries are soft. Remove and discard the elderflower heads and add the rest of the sugar. Turn the heat up a little and cook for 4-5 minutes to reduce the liquid a little. Remove from the heat when it's just beginning to catch on the bottom of the pan. Leave to go cold.

2. Remove and discard the lemon zest from the pan. Rub the fruit through a sieve into a large mixing bowl and stir in the elderflower cordial, to taste.

3. In another bowl, whip the cream until it just starts to form soft peaks. Carefully fold the custard into the gooseberry purée, followed by the cream, so that the mixture is nicely marbled. Spoon into 4 serving glasses and chill for at least 1 hour before serving. Serve with the sponge fingers.


Gooseberry and elderflower crumble
Serves 4

450g gooseberries
150g caster sugar
Elderflower cordial
1 small orange, zest and juice

For the crumble:

100g plain flour
100g unsalted butter
100g caster sugar
50g blanched hazelnuts, toasted and chopped
Vanilla ice cream to serve

1. Preheat the oven to 220˚C.

2. First make the crumble. Place the flour and butter in a bowl and using your fingertips work together until a breadcrumb texture has been achieved. Add the sugar and the hazelnuts and work through the mix until fully incorporated and the topping has a textured uneven appearance.

3. Wash the gooseberries, remove the husks and pat dry with a clean tea towel. Top and tail them if necessary.

4. Heat a frying pan and add the sugar and orange zest, then add the gooseberries, orange juice and elderflower cordial. Place over a high heat until the gooseberries begin to release their juices, shaking the pan frequently. Divide the gooseberries among four individual ovenproof dishes.

5. Sprinkle the topping evenly over the gooseberries to cover them, tap the dishes on the work surface to remove any air pockets. Bake for about 8-10 minutes until the topping is golden brown and the gooseberries are bubbling up around the sides. Leave to stand for 5 minutes to cool slightly before serving.

6. Serve with a scoop of the vanilla ice-cream.

Chicken liver pate

I recently made Delia Smith's Autentic Ragu Bolognaise again (it is still the most amazing ragu sauce recipe) and as per last time when I made chicken liver crostini, I had chicken livers leftover that I just couldn't throw out.

This time, I decided to try one of my favourite restaurant appetisers - chicken liver pate. Of course, I was completely disorganised, so had to find a recipe with ingredients I already had or could easily obtain in my local neighbourhood at 4pm on a Sunday (we have no large supermarket in the immediate vicinity). I decided to go with another Delia recipe, but with a few changes. I used nutmeg instead of mace, and despite going to 6 local shops, had to use prepared mustard instead of mustard powder.

The recipe required a bit of tasting and adjusting to balance the brandy, mustard and seasoning, but we were happy with the flavour in the end and I was particularly impressed with my cheat's version of clarified butter on top (I just held the spoon against the butter solids when pouring the melted butter from the frying pan onto the pates - worked really well!). The recipe made a lot, so we ate chicken liver pate several times for a week. Luckily, it was really good - smooth, rich and packed full of flavour. It was best with toasted brown bread (we also tried crackers) and was best once fully chilled but taken out of the fridge for 30 minutes to bring it up to room temperature.

I always suspected the reason this is on so many menus is because it is cheap, easy and really tasty. It definitely is all those things. The question now is whether I'll keep ordering it out when I know I can make it myself (and I know how much butter is in it)!

Chicken Liver Pate
Delia Online
Serves 6

225g chicken livers, rinsed, patted dry and trimmed
2 tablespoons cognac
2 level teaspoons mustard powder
1/4 level teaspoon ground mace
1 level teaspoon chopped thyme, plus extra for garnish
2 cloves garlic, crushed
salt and pepper

To make the pâté, take a medium-sized, heavy-based frying pan, melt about 25g of the butter in it and fry the chicken livers over a medium heat for about 5 minutes. Keep them on the move, turning them over quite frequently. Then remove them from the pan using a draining spoon and transfer them to a blender or food processor.

Now, in the same pan, gently melt 150g of the remaining butter and add this to the blender or food processor. Then pour the brandy on to the juices left in the frying pan (to capture all the lovely flavours), and pour that over the livers.

Now add the mustard, mace, thyme and garlic, season well with salt and freshly milled black pepper, and blend until you have a smooth, velvety purée.

Next, divide the between 6 ramekins (or pots). Then melt the remaining 50g of butter, pour a little over each one to seal, press in a sprig of thyme, and leave them to get quite cold.

Cover with clingfilm and leave them in the fridge till needed. Serve with toasted brown bread, cut into triangles.

Lamb biryani

I had really been looking forward to seeing the Gypsy Kings at Kenwood House as part of the English Heritage Picnic concerts. The blurb on the website promised "a glorious summer's evening to remember" . . . "there's no better way to enjoy a perfect summer evening" they said. What they failed to mention is that there are probably better ways to spend a drizzly, cold summer's evening. Yes, of course, it rained. But in true stoic British fashion, we all packed our umbrellas in with our picnic blankets and went regardless!

Anyway, we did have a most unusual encounter. The family in front of us was big and loud and fun and had been eating all this wonderful looking and smelling lamb biryani all night. The contributor of the lamb biryani kept offering it around to the family and I couldn't help but think, mmm lamb biryani, I could eat some lamb biryani!

Imagine then how bad/excited I felt when towards the end of the night, she said we've got too much and turned around and offered us some. Of course, we declined, but she gave us some anyway along with a homemade chapati. It was delicious - better than any Indian restaurant she told us and she was right. Delicately spiced, soft tender lamb and amazingly for an outdoor picnic concert in the rain, still warm.

I was inspired. So, I decided to make some myself. A bit of internet research and I chose this recipe. The list of ingredients was long and the method even longer, but I was happy to invest the time. It paid off! This version was hotter and spicier than the first one and not as saucy, but the meat was meltingly tender. The depth of flavour was quite lovely and even though the rice looked quite dry, it was all very moist.

You would need to allow a good 4 to 5 hours to make this, but it makes a huge quantity (we have frozen lots of leftovers), so you get a bit of a return on your investment.


Lamb biryani
UKTV Food
Prep time: 1 hr, plus marinating and soaking Cook time: 1 hrs 50 mins
Serves 8-10

½ tsp strands Saffron
¾ tsp cardamom seeds
2 blades mace
4 Onions
6 tbsp vegetable oil, plus extra for deep frying
8 cm Ginger, peeled
6 cloves Garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp Chilli powder
1 lime, juice only
750g Lamb shoulder, cut into 4cm cubes
Green cardamom
6 Black cardamom
5 cm cinnamon sticks
½ tsp Cloves
2 dried Bay leaves
1 tbsp Garam masala
3 green chillies, deseeded and sliced
200 ml Greek yogurt
450g Basmati rice
handful mint leaves
2 tbsp Butter

1. Soak the saffron in 2 tablespoons of hot water and set aside until ready to use.

2. Using a mortar and pestle, pound the cardamom seeds and mace to a powder and leave on one side; you'll need this later when layering up the rice and meat.

3. Slice 2 of the onions then sprinkle them with salt and set aside for 20 minutes. Squeeze out any excess water from the onions and pat them dry with paper towels. Deep-fry the sliced onions in hot oil until golden and drain on paper towels. Set half aside for garnishing the biryani.

4. Transfer the remaining fried onions to a food processor, pour in 3 tablespoons of hot water then purée; you should have about 2 tablespoons of onion paste.

5. Finely grate half of the ginger and combine with the garlic, chilli powder, and lime juice in a large mixing bowl. Stir in the onion paste and add the lamb. Mix everything together and leave to marinate for 1 hour.

6. Dice the 2 remaining onions. Heat 6 tablespoons of oil in a large casserole pan set over a medium heat and soften the diced onions for 5 minutes, without colouring.

7. Slice the remaining ginger into fine strips and set aside. Add the green and brown cardamom pods, cinnamon, cloves, and bay leaves to the pan. Fry for about 30 seconds, until you get a warm, spicy aroma.

8. Tip in the meat and its marinade and add the garam masala, green chillies, and ginger strips. Bring to simmering point and gradually add the yogurt, a tablespoon at a time. Cover and simmer for about 45 minutes, until the lamb is tender and the masala thickened; the sauce should be well-reduced and almost clinging to the meat.

9. Cover the rice with cold water and leave to soak for 20 minutes. Ten minutes before the meat is ready, bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Drain the rice and add to the pan then cook for 5 minutes - it should be half-cooked and still have bite to it. Drain the rice in a colander.

10. Preheat the oven to 160C/gas 3. Put half of the hot meat in the bottom of a clean casserole pan. Cover with half of the freshly boiled rice and sprinkle with half of the ground cardamom and mace spice mixture and half of the mint.

11. Top with the remaining meat and rice. Scatter over the rest of the spice mix, mint leaves, and the sliced browned onions that you fried in step 3. Dot the surface with butter and drizzle over the saffron and its soaking liquid. Cover the biryani with wet greaseproof (waxed) paper and a well-fitting lid.

12. Bake for 40 minutes, until the rice is perfumed and perfectly cooked. Gently fluff up the grains with a fork and serve straight from the pan.

Pork kebabs on minted broad beans with feta

One of my favourite British vegetables is broad beans. They are a bit of work, by the time you pod them, boil them and then remove the outer coating, but they are such a glorious bright green, so summery, with a lovely fresh flavour. This was a lovely recipe to highlight the broad beans. The pork and potato kebabs were fairly plain, so the broad bean, feta and mint salad was the star (it would be a great bbq salad). Just remember to allow enough time for all that broad bean prep!

Pork kebabs on minted broad beans with feta
Delicious website
Serves 4

1 pork tenderloin
3 baby new potatoes ½ lemon
2 tbsp olive oil
4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
Small handful of chopped rosemary
500g broad beans
Good handful of mint leaves
150g crumbled feta

Method

1. Trim your pork tenderloin and cut into 12 pieces. Thread 3 chunks of pork and 3 cooked baby new potatoes alternately onto each of 4 skewers.
2. Mix the lemon juice, olive oil and a small handful of finely chopped rosemary and use to brush the kebabs.
3. Cook under a hot preheated grill (or barbecue) for 10-12 minutes, turning once.
4. Meanwhile, boil broad beans in salted water for 4-5 minutes until just tender, then drain and refresh. Toss with a good handful of mint leaves, plenty of extra-virgin olive oil, seasoning and feta.
5. Divide between 4 plates and serve with the kebabs on top.

Rigatoni with Sweet Tomatoes, Eggplant, and Mozzarella

Before we left Australia to come to the UK, we sold pretty much all of our belongings. Bizarrely, one of the things I was most sad to get rid of was all my old cooking magazines. I had a couple of years of Delicious and Super Food Ideas and while I couldn't justify keeping them, it was a bit sad to see them go. That became more critical when it appeared that one of the magazines I sold contained a Jamie Oliver pasta recipe that Kyle loved and was nowhere to be found on the internet.

From memory, we recalled the recipe included aubergine, mozzarella stirred through at the end so it just melts, tinned tomato and chilli. Every so often, I did a browse around the internet to try and find the recipe. It is the internet - everything is on there! Finally, my persistence paid off and I found the recipe on some pregnancy forum! It was slightly different to how we remembered, but it had been a while.

We were so excited and looked forward to the two year plus reunion with this dish. And it was disappointing. I mean, not bad but kinda bland. What was going on?

Jamie Oliver's language is always quite distinctive and the writer of the forum post had used a sentence that reminded me of how Jamie writes, so I decided to google that:

The mozzarella should be just about to melt and a bit stringy at this point cooked by the heat of the sauce.

Bingo! This post came up first (along with three others) and it turns out the recipe is from Jamie's Dinners (not that secret after all!) and the first recipe missed out the vital ingredient - chilli!

The lengths we go to to find a recipe! We haven't yet, but we will give this another try.

Rigatoni with Sweet Tomatoes, Eggplant and Mozzarella
by Jamie Oliver from Jamie’s Dinners
Serves 4

This is a dish I’ve had many times in Italy, on the Amalfi coast. It’s one of those dishes that tastes like home — it’s comfort food, and it makes you feel good. The interesting thing about it is that the cow’s-milk mozzarella is torn up and thrown in at the last minute so that when you dig your spoon in you get melted, stringy bits of it — a real joy to eat. You can eat this as soon as it’s made, or you can put it all into a baking pan with a little cheese grated on top and reheat it as a baked pasta dish the next day, if you wish.

Ingredients
1 firm ripe pink, black, or white eggplant
Extra-virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
Two 14-ounce cans good-quality plum tomatoes
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 to 2 fresh or dried chilies, chopped or crumbled, optional
Bunch fresh basil, leaves ripped and stalks sliced
4 tablespoons heavy cream
1 pound rigatoni or penne
7 ounces cow’s-milk mozzarella
1 piece Parmesan cheese, for grating

Method
1. Remove both ends of the eggplant and slice it into 1/2 inch slices, then slice these across and finely dice into 1/2 inch cubes. Some people prefer to season their eggplant with salt and let it sit for a while in a colander to draw out the bitterness, but I don’t really do this unless I’m dealing with a seedy, bitter eggplant. This dish is really best made using a firm silky one.

2. Now, put a large saucepan on the heat and drizzle in 4 to 5 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil. When it’s hot, add the cubes of eggplant, and as soon as they hit the pan stir them around with a spoon so they are delicately coated with the oil and not soaked on one side only. Cook for about 7 or 8 minutes on a medium heat.

3. Then add the garlic and onion. When they have a little color, add the canned tomatoes and the balsamic vinegar. Stir around and season carefully with salt and pepper. At this point, if you wanted to give the dish a little heat you could add some chopped fresh or crumbled dried chilli, but that’s up to you. Add the basil stalks, and simmer the sauce nice and gently for around 15 minutes, then add the cream.

4. While the sauce is simmering, bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and add the pasta, cook according to the package instructions until it is soft but still holding its shape, then drain it, saving a little of the cooking water. I like to put the pasta back into the pot it was cooked in with a tiny bit of the cooking water and a drizzle of olive oil and move it around so it becomes almost dressed with the water and oil.

5. At this point add the lovely tomato sauce to the pasta. By now the eggplant will have cooked into a creamy tomatoey pulp, which is just yum yum yum! Season carefully to taste with salt and pepper. When all my guests are sitting round the table, I take the pan to the table, tear up the mozzarella and the fresh basil, and fold these in nicely for 30 seconds. Then very quickly serve into bowls. By the time your guests start to eat, the mozzarella will have started to melt and will be stringy and gorgeous and really milky-tasting. Just lovely with the tomatoes and eggplant. Serve at the table with a block of Parmesan cheese and a grater so that everyone can help themselves.

Cranberry and White Chocolate Mini Muffins

I rarely make things like cake and biscuits, mainly because I don't have room for lots of cake tins and if you make cakes and biscuits, you have to eat them all. Between two people, that can be a lot of cake!

We were invited to a barbecue (yay, barbecue!) at a friend's place and seeing the list of everything she had organised, the only missing item was a dessert. It is a fairly long train trip to their place, though, so it had to be something fairly portable. I happened upon some cute bright blue silicon mini-muffin trays in the market near my work and decided mini muffins would be perfect.

The next part was to find a recipe. In the end, I decided on these Cranberry and White Chocolate Mini Muffins, except that I used milk chocolate instead of white. They were pretty good in the end and popular at the barbecue. They were a nice balance between chocolate and fruit and not too sweet. They were also easy to serve and eat as finger food, easy to transport and the silicon mini muffin trays are easy to store - perfect!

Cranberry and White Chocolate Mini Muffins

Makes 24

100g plain flour
1 tsp mixed spice
50g demerara sugar
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
75g white chocolate chips
1 medium egg, beaten
150ml milk
50g butter, melted and cooled
75g dried cranberries

To finish
100g white chocolate
25g dried cranberries

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C, gas mark 6. Line two 12-hole mini muffin tins with mini muffin or petit four cases.
2. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Make a well in the centre. Mix the wet ingredients, pour into the dry and stir for about 20 seconds until you have a lumpy batter. Don't overmix. Spoon into the cases and bake for 15 minutes. Cool on a rack.
3. To finish, melt the chocolate, scrape into a polythene bag and cool so it thickens a little. Cut a tiny hole in the corner of the bag. Drizzle the chocolate over the muffins and top with dried cranberries.

Chicken, ham and asparagus pie

I actually made this pie ages ago, but didn't have a chance to blog about it before we went to NY. It was so tasty and easy to make, that I didn't want it to be forgotten. This is the perfect 'Summer' pie to make when you feel like pie, but the warmer weather doesn't justify heavy meat sauces and thick pastry. If you go lightly on the butter (and don't add cheese like I did), it is even quite healthy!

Chicken, Ham and Asparagus Pie
Olive magazine, May 2009 Serves 4

4 skinless chicken breasts
butter
100g asparagus
100g peas
100g ham, torn into pieces
100ml creme fraiche
1 tbsp gainry mustard
50g breadcrumbs

Brush the chicken breasts with a little butter and grill, turning once, until just cooked (I pan-fried them, but I think this would also be a great recipe for leftover cooked/roast chicken). Slice into chunks and tips into a shallow dish.

Blanch the asparagus and peas until just tender, then drain and scatter over the chicken with the ham.

Mix the creme fraiche with the mustard and dollop over the top, then scatter with breadcrumbs (I also grated some parmesan cheese over the top, but it probably didn't need it).

Dot with a little more butter and grill for 5 minutes until golden and heated through (I actually put this in a 180 degree oven for about 20 minutes and then under the grill to brown the top).

Skylight Diner (New York)

Our last night in New York (which thankfully means my last NY post!). We went to a New York Liberty game at Madison Square Garden, where the crowd was full of hyped up children drinking giant cokes and eating hot dogs. I had the giant coke as well, so was also full of sugar and excitement at the edge-of-the-seat game and the energy in the crowd (well, sugar high at least!).

For the very last hurrah, I decided we needed to go to a diner. An American Diner. The Skylight Diner was only a couple of blocks away and was almost completely empty at 10pm on a Friday night. It really looked the part - long counter, bar stools, boothes, baseball on the TV behind the bar. According to the menu, the Skylight Diner was voted the #1 Diner in Manhattan by the New York Daily News. Lofty praise, indeed.

It mustn't have been for the service. We were served by an exceedingly grumpy old man, who was clearly upset that we had interrupted his baseball viewing. No cliched chirpy blonde waitresses with pony-tails in this diner!

I really wanted pie (said in an American accent - paih?). I really wanted cherry pie and it was on the menu, but apparently even though the menu listed about 10 different pies, in reality, they only had apple pie. That was okay, I like apple pie. I would have preferred it heated but grumpy old man was having none of that. Kyle ordered pancakes and I also ordered a hot chocolate.

The pie and hot chocolate arrived quickly and looked impressive. The pie was a gorgeous shiny pastry, filled with chunks of real stewed apple. It was delicious, but very sweet. The hot chocolate (one I removed the huge dollop of canned cream from the top) was actually surprisingly not too sweet and helped to balance out the sweetness of the pie.

Kyle's pancakes finally arrived and I was immediately jealous. Three thick, fluffy, steaming pancakes served with lots of whipped butter and maple syrup to dress them with yourself. This is where McDonald's got the inspiration for their hotcakes. They were so good! Luckily, they were really filling, so I sacrificed the end of my pie to help Kyle finish the pancakes.

The diner was really cool! I wish the service had have been better, but otherwise, I loved it! The food was lovely, huge portions for fairly cheap - all of this cost about $10. And they're open 24 hours. 24 hours of pie . . . as long as you want apple.

An awesome ending to our trip to New York (I prefer to think of it as the ending - the next day, we actually had the worst meal of the entire trip at Lindy's Diner - bad food, bad service, really overpriced). We had such a brilliant time in NY - so much to see, so much to do, so much to eat!

Skylight Diner
402 West 34th Street (at 9th Ave)
New York, NY 10001

Lombardi's Pizza (New York)

There is a lot of commentary on the internet around the best pizza in New York. The original plan had been to go to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge and then go to Grimaldi's in Brooklyn, which is supposed to be very authentic. Unfortunately, the day we walked across the bridge was the day we had been to Bobby Van's for burgers and we were so full, there was no room to do any justice to pizza.

The back-up plan was Lombardi's on Spring Street in Soho. Lombardi's is the first official pizzeria in New York, first licensed in 1905. After a few hours of hard-core NY shopping, we rolled up to Lombardi's hot, tired, exhausted and in the mood for some pizza.

Lombardi's looks quite small when you first arrive and we queued for a couple of minutes, but it is bigger than it first appears. That being said, it was pretty busy at 4pm on a Friday afternoon, so I would imagine the queues on a Friday night would be significant.

The menu is pretty simple. The pizzas come in two sizes - 6 or 8 slices - with mozzarella, tomato sauce, basil and pecorino romano. There are then about 12 meat or vegetable toppings you can choose from at exponentially increasing prices. We decided to go reasonably authentic with just pepperoni.

The pizza arrived quickly and first appearances were good. The base was thin and crisp, with a few blackened bubbles that indicated a good hot pizza oven. The topping of melted cheese and crisped pepperoni looked and smelled delicious.

Luckily, the good first impression continued. The dough had an excellent chewy texture and yeasty taste and the topping was cheesy but flavoursome. I particuarly enjoyed the fresh basil, which give it a real burst of flavour. If I was going to criticise anything about this pizza, it could have had the topping spread out further to the edges. But that is really nit-picking!

In actual fact, it wasn't a million miles away from the Italian pizzas we have enjoyed in Italy, so to be honest, I'm a little unclear on the significant difference between New York and Italian pizzas. No bad thing - they're both excellent!

So another NY junk food checked off the list and it was definitely good. As I mentioned, we were there in the late afternoon, which suited our plans, but the feel of the restaurant was a bit 'churn and burn', definitely fast food. I'm not sure this is the sort of place to linger over a meal! The service wasn't anything special and the restaurant itself was just okay. But, Lombardi's is what it is and I'm pretty sure no-one is going there for the atmosphere! Everyone is going for the pizza and luckily, the pizza is well worth going for.

Lombardi's Pizza
32 Spring Street
New York, NY 10012-4173

Katz's Deli (New York)

Next stop on the list of must-try NY foods - pastrami on rye. The most famous destination for this traditionally Jewish sandwich would have to be Katz's Deli on the Lower East Side, surely. Katz's is the site of the most famous scene from one of my all-time favourite movies, When Harry Met Sally. You know the scene . . . I'll have what she's having. Katz's does capitalise on this a little, with a huge sign hanging above the table in question and several photos of Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal around the place. But Katz's was famous way before that movie and the reason is their pastrami on rye (as well as the slightly dodgy slogan "Send a salami to your boy in the army").

The deli is very authentic looking. A huge counter stretches the length of the restaurant, where you can either order directly from the sandwich makers or take a seat in the area marked for table service, which we did. We decided to split a pastrami on rye and a bagel with cream cheese and lox, another NY classic.

A plate of very disturbing looking pickles arrived first. Still not sure about these, but all thoughts of the pickles were gone the moment the pastrami sandwich arrived.

Wow. Now that is a sandwich. A pile of warm, thick-cut pastrami piled on on bread. That was it. Our authentically NY server (he was brilliant) gave us the mayo we asked for but with the caveat that we wouldn't need it, because the mustard is so good. I'm not a huge mustard fan, but he was right. The slightly spicy mustard perfectly balanced out the rich, juicy pastrami. So good.

The bagel arrived next and was also piled high, this time with rich, fatty salmon and slathers of cream cheese. It was really good, but let's face it, this one you can make yourself fairly easily, so it struggled to compete with the pastrami.

I've since read reviews that say except for the pastrami, the food at Katz's is pretty awful. To that, I say, who cares! If you make one thing that good, that is sufficient to justify your existance. That and being the site of the best fake orgasm scene in film . . .


Katz's Delicatessan
205 East Houston Street
New York, NY 10002

Hill Country (New York), 8.5/10

One of the things I miss desperately as an Australian in London is barbecue. At the moment we don't have a garden, and consequently, no barbecue, and I have been having cravings for eating grilled meat for a while now. I always thought barbecue was a quintessially Australian food activity, one we did better than anyone. However, very quickly upon being in America, I realised they have taken it to a whole new level. Cookbooks, cooking shows and food magazines all seemed to be about the perfect burger (fair enough) but also the perfect pulled pork, moist brisket or beef ribs - barbecue meats we haven't considered in Australia. They even have competitions! Australia is a competitive country, certainly when it comes to sport, but I don't actually recall any barbecue competitions!

Anyway, as a result, I was keen to try an American barbecue restaurant while in New York. I recalled a restaurant called Hill Country from some of my early reading, so on a warm Thursday evening, we headed towards West 26th Street to experience some authentic Texan 'cue in NY.


The rules are fairly complicated. You are given a meal ticket on entry and it is vitally important you don't lose this. You are shown to your table and your drinks waiter takes your order. In your own time, you join the queue for the meat.

There are a lot of choices, all sold by the weight - moist brisket, lean brisket, beef shoulder, prime rib, beef ribs, pork spare ribs, pork chops, sausages, chicken, beer can game hen, lamb chops and beef short ribs. Are you getting the idea? Not a place for vegetarians! It was all a little intimidating, especially as the guy at the counter keeps yelling (that's him in the photo - he looks kind of scary, doesn't he? And they had big knives)! We overheard what some other, more experienced customers were ordering, so when we got our yell - NEXT CUSTOMER! STEP UP!!!! - we were prepared. Or so we thought.

We asked for half a pound of moist brisket and half a pound of beef short ribs. Unfortunately, he heard beef shoulder and after some discussion (apparently the beef short ribs only come in a full rack), we opted for regular beef ribs and he threw in some of the shoulder that had already been cut in the confusion. All this was wrapped in a big sheet of butcher paper on top of some slices of white bread and we were shunted off to the sides and trimmings counter as the next customer was told to step up behind us.

The next choice was amongst the ten or so sides dishes. We chose Corn Pudding, Green Bean Casserole and Corn Bread. Feeling somewhat shell-shocked but with a tray full of good-looking food (they mark your meal ticket with the choices), we headed back to our table.


First up and with the memory from The Red Tomato in Toronto still fresh, was the moist brisket. This one was served without sauce, although the Hill Country Barbecue Sauce was on every table. To be honest, it didn't need it. The meats are all cooked in a dry-rub style and are slowly smoked over oak they bring in from Texas. Which all means, packed with flavour and deliciously soft and moist. The brisket was the best. The ribs were tasty, but a little difficult to eat - beef ribs are enormous bones! As you served yourself on little paper trays, it was quite hard to deal with the ribs. The freebie beef shoulder was very tender, but had less flavour than that amazing brisket. The corn pudding was an unusual taste - sweet, but with underlying chilli heat - and the green bean casserole was served in a creamy mushroom and onion sauce. The cornbread was also a little unusual, with an almost cake-like texture.

I absolutely loved Hill Country, but I'm not sure how much was the food and how much was the experience and the atmosphere! The brisket was exceptional, everything else was quite good, but the vibe of the place was so much fun and so different. It was like walking into a different country!

We topped off a really fun night with a visit to Top of the Rock at the Rockefeller Centre, for amazing nighttime views of New York. What an awesome city!


Food: 8/10
Drinks: 8/10
Service: 8/10
Ambience: 10/10
Overall: 8.5/10

Hill Country
30 West 26th Street
New York, NY 10010

Bouchon Bakery (New York)

According to The S.Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants for 2009, the best restaurant in the Americas is Per Se in the Time Warner Centre in New York, run by Thomas Keller originally of The French Laundrey in California. The restaurant offers a 9 course tasting menu for $275 (there are also some additional courses including foie gras for $30 and Australian truffles for $75) and it is notoriously difficult to get a reservation. Needless to say, we didn't go. We did have a look though - very subtle.


Thomas Keller also owns the Bouchon Bakery on the third floor of the Time Warner centre (Per Se is on the fourth), where you can sit down to sandwiches and salads for around $20. We didn't go there either. We did, however, have coffee and cake from the 'takeaway' outlet of the bakery, which was a comparative bargain at only $10 and means in a remote and distant manner, I have partaken of the food of the best chef in America.

There are a few small tables around the bakery and some with an exceptional view out the full glass front of The Time Warner Centre across Columbus Circle and up West 59th Street. With some careful loitering, we managed to snag one of these tables.

The choice of cakes was impressive - beautiful macarons, croissants, pain aux raisin, tarts, muffins. It was fortunate the queue took a while, as I took a while to decide. In the end, I opted for a sticky bun and a fig and hazelnut croissant. The croissant was lovely - full of sticky fig paste in the middle, wrapped in light pastry but with a heavy hazelnut and almost streusel topping. The sticky bun, however, was glorious. It looked pretty ridiculous and over-the-top, but was somehow not too sweet, despite the cinnamon swirl, the caramel sauce and the huge number of pecans on top. Delicious! The super-strong coffee was the perfect accompaniment to some excellent sweets and one of the best views in New York.

Bouchon Bakery
Third Floor
Time Warner Centre
Ten Columbus Circle
New York, NY 10019

Grand Central Oyster Bar

The Grand Central Oyster Bar is located in the beautiful Grand Central train station on East 42nd Street. The station is a restored early 1900's building, seemingly packed with as many places to eat as trains, but the famous one is the Oyster Bar with its long counter where you can watch the oyster shuckers do their thang. Unfortunately, as you come into the restaurant, it is so overwhelmingly enormous, that we somehow ended up being seated in the main restaurant section and missed out on the oyster bar.

The main restaurant was packed and loud on a Wednesday evening, with people around us tucking into huge plates of oysters, lobsters and crabs. It still strikes me as a little unusual going to a train station for your special seafood meal!

We were there primarily for one reason - the New England Clam Chowder. But first, we decided to try some oysters . . . we were in an oyster bar, after all. There were some 30 different types of oysters on the menu, which is updated daily according to what is available. The oysters all came from North America, with quite a few from the New York area. Unfortunately, we didn't recognise any, so just had to pick randomly. We chose two Plymouth Rocks (Massachussets), two East End (Long Island, NY) and two Wellfleet (Massachussets).

They arrived quickly (before our drinks even) and were nicely presented on a bed of ice, with lemon wedges and little tubs of ketchup and vinegar. I must admit, I'm not a huge fan of oysters. I tend to find they are best eaten quickly without concentrating too much, particularly on the texture. For that reason, I usually prefer smaller oysters and the Plymouth Rock ones were pretty huge, so definitely not my favourite. The other two were smaller and were really fresh tasting and not unpleasant at all.

But as I mentioned, it was all about the Clam Chowder. When it first arrived, I was a bit concerned - it didn't really look that exciting, but luckily, tasted delicious. Thick, rich and creamy with chunks of clam thoughout. Although this wasn't the best example I've ever had, clam chowder is a strong contender for the best type of soup, I think.

We weren't at the Grand Central Oyster Bar for long (we had had a huge lunch at Gramercy Tavern earlier, so weren't particularly hungry), but it was one of those NY foodie adventures that are fun to experience.

Grand Central Oyster Bar & Restaurant
Lower Level, Grand Central Station
East 42nd Street
New York, NY 10017