NYC: A Six-Course Tea Dinner

I was cleaning through my photo archives this afternoon, trying to figure out how to best organize everything (by date, location?) when I found photos from dinner at In Pursuit of Tea. The six-course tea dinner was one-time event cooked by the French Culinary Institute's chef-instructor, Melanie Franks. It took place in Feburary and I mentioned purchasing the dinner tickets in this post. Guess I never got around to posting the photos!

A bit delayed but better late than never :)

The dinner was a eye-opener that introduced us to different ways of using tea to cook. Each course featured tea as a key ingredient. And it wasn't just your normal tea eggs or tea-infused sweets, but crazy awesome things like fried fresh tea leaves, tea tapioca, tea pastas and puff pastries, butter tea broth and so much more. I just received my copy of Culinary Tea in the mail, so between dinner photos and that cookbook, I have a feeling there's will be lots of cooking with tea posts coming soon.

Tea Leaf Tempura - Honey Tempura Batter and Fresh Hawaiian Tea Leaves

Tea-Cured Trout with Tea-Smoked Yogurt, Oranges, Olives, and Garlic Chips

Almond Soup with Jasmine Pearls Tapioca, Sauteed Pears, Salsify, Fresh Pansy Flowers and Basil Oil

Goat Cheese and Matcha Puff Pastry, Arugula and Sunflower Sprouts, Kumquats, and Sencha Dressing

Small tea tasting between some of the courses - pictured above is Sencha

Hojicha Pasta with Egg and Butter-Tea Broth - Parmigiano, Mascarpone, Heirloom Carrots, Potatoes, and Cippolini Onions

Baochong Oolong Sorbet with Lime and Lemon Zest

Lemon Tart with Candied Keemun Tea Leaves and Clotted Cream Ice Cream

NYC: Breakfast and Lunch, No Brunch

Never one to skip a meal, I love breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But not brunch.

When we eat out on the weekends at "brunch time," I'll do anything to steer us towards non-brunchy restaurants, away from crowds of people and crazy wait times. High and reliable on my non-brunchy (is that even a word? ;) list are places like Pylos and L'Artusi. Rarely a wait. In fact, they're often empty at brunch because not many people know they're open.

The brunch menu at Pylos is the same as the weekday lunch menu, and L'Artusi offers a selection of the dinner pastas, like a garganelli mushroom ragu as well as this hanger steak at brunch. That's the sort of stuff I love. You also can't go wrong with the "L'Artusi breakfast." Two eggs, roasted mushrooms, crispy potatoes, sausage, pancetta, roasted tomato, and toast. Get the eggs sunny side up, salt and pepper, pop the yolk with the toast and soak it clean. Happy Sunday :)

L'Artusi
228 West 10th Street
New York, NY 10014
(212) 255-5757

NYC: Saturday Lunch

Blue Cheese, Goat Cheese, Prosciutto, Pecan-Raisin Bread, and Greens and Flowers with Tomatoes, Grated Parmesan, Balsamic Vinegar and Olive Oil.

Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend :)

Sugar Rush'ed...

...for the week at Serious Eats

Sugar Rush: Ice Cream at Je & Jo

A Sandwich a Day: Meatball Melt at Murray's Cheese

Best Spots for Fresh Watermelon Juice in NYC

Sugar Rush: Oatmeal Pancakes at L'Artusi

Sweet Finds: Chubby Wubby by Chocolate Gourmet

NYC's Top 10 Ice Cream Sandwiches

Sugar Rush: Strawberry Roule at François Payard Bakery

Cool Drinks, NY: Green Lemonade at Lafayette Espresso Bar

Sweet Finds: Euforia's Thousand-Layer Cakes

Sugar Rush: Sheep Station's Sticky Toffee Pudding

Sugar Rush: Acai Cup at O Cafe

Le Palais des Thés: Bruit de Palais

The most enjoyable part of packing for vacation (for me at least ;), is planning what reading material to bring for the flight and down time on the trip itself. For our visit to China in June I had Danny Meyer's Setting the Table and Guy Kawasaki's Enchantment tucked in the suitcase. Both proved to be great learning tools.

But for Paris and Alsace next week I have a few issues of Bruit de Palais, a in-house magazine from Le Palais des Thés. Once you purchase €80 of their teas in a calender year, you become part of the loyalty program. The program involves discounts on future purchase, gifts, and some pretty neat exclusive offers. But the coolest part...

...are these monthly magazines. It's the type of magazine I would eagerly buy off the newsstands if only they were sold there. Each issue has a theme, focusing just as much on teaware as tea itself.

Think stories on Japanese cast-iron tea pots or linking tea and Chinese ceramics. Think tea recipes - ideas on how to incorporate tea into everyday cooking, and degustation and brewing notes on selection teas, both pure and blends.

Equal parts history, eye-candy, and research, I keep all the magazines on my bookshelf. The thick matte pages are too gorgeous to throw out! Understandably, there's a bit of product promotion, but done so in a way that makes it not pushy but informative.

As a bonus, they're super light, so that just means I can pack more reading material into my suitcase ;)

NYC: Magie Strega with Morning Espresso

Pierre brought home these chocolates from Eataly last week. He's not much of a dessert person, but enjoys a square of chocolate, or in this case...

...Alberti's Magie Strega with his morning espresso. It's too sweet when eaten alone, but when coupled with a shot of espresso (or tea!), it's a perfect balance.

A soft milk chocolate truffle with ground nuts and Strega liqueur, just boozy enough...

...open and voilà! Nothing fancy, though the packaging is mighty cute. They're sold by the piece at Eataly, but at the rate Pierre's going through them we'll have to order the bulk pack online.

Hope everyone is having a good week!

Home Scents: Lavender and Something from the Islands

We've gone through a parade of home scents this summer and yet L'Occitane's Lavender is the one I keep returning to. The lavender is calming, light with a bit of vanilla in the air. And it's also the only one Pierre will tolerate. He says it reminds him of Provence. No surprise there ;)

Remind me to find a local Hawaiian scent the next time I'm in Honolulu. Hibiscus? Pikake*? Lilikoi? Pierre can be reminded of Provence in one room and I shall be reminded of Hawai'i in another! Couple that with the (occasionally not so pleasant) scent of New York City right out our doors. Trifecta! What more could you ask for?

*And maybe a solid pikake fragrance balm from Maoli Perfumes to match - found these beauties via hapa | hale.

Tea Forté: Teas for the Heart

Merci to Lisa for this sweet gift - I love fun packaging so you can see why I oohed and ahhed over Teas for the Heart. A heart-shaped box designed to hold five teas, this is Tea Forté's newest creation made to "raise awareness to champion WomenHeart." They even won a sofi award at the 2011 Fancy Food Show for outstanding food gift.

Five teas to the box, all green teas: Green Mango Peach, Oasis, Moroccan Mint, Jasmine Green, and Sencha...

...check on the bottom of each tall pyramid box for more information on the teas.

Almost like origami. The boxes are so pretty and well designed with precise edges and small touches. It pains me to throw them out. Do you ever keep packaging you love or find inspiring? I used to, but now I throw them out for fear of accumulating piles of "stuff" I'll never use again.

They call them tea pyramid infusers and they surely are eye catching, right down to the little green leaf handle. Marketing and presentation is seriously everything ;)

Hope everyone is enjoying the week!

A Boston Ice Cream Tour: JP Licks, Emack & Bolio’s, Picco, Toscanini's, and Christina's Homemade Ice Cream

Steph is visiting from Boston soon and I believe it was around this same time last year when it was the other way around and I was visiting her in Boston. I recall the weather being so hot one day that all we could do was eat ice cream.

And that's exactly what we did.

We started at JP Licks...

...a scoop each of Mint-Oreo and Kugel Pudding Ice Cream with Hot Fudge...

...hot fudge on the side of course ;) Always nice to control where the fudge flows.

A short walk took us to the doors of Emack & Bolio’s...

...you can't go wrong with their Mud Pie, java ice cream with Oreos and chocolate bits.

And then we moved on to Picco...

...where a sundae composed of Dark Chocolate Ice Cream, Raspberry Chip Ice Cream, and fresh Whipped Cream...

...was the end to an excellent lunch of spaghetti chitarra and a half-half pizza. Two seats at the bar and lots of iced water please!

Post lunch we walked to Steph's apartment in Back Bay (so much bigger than the tiny NYC apartment we used to share) for a little nap and air conditioning before heading over the bridge to...

...the famed Toscanini's in Cambridge. So many options!

But our heart was set on the Black Bottom (consisting of chocolate pudding, ginger and molasses) and Afternoon Tea Ice Cream. I mean, tea ice cream folded with bits of soft vanilla cake? How could you not.

I made a return trip for the Burnt Caramel Ice Cream the following day, heheh.

A short bus ride took us to Christina's Homemade Ice Cream where we found ...

...a generous scoop of pistachio-studded Kulfee Ice Cream to be the perfect finish to the day.

JP Licks
352 Newbury Street
Boston, MA 02115
(617) 236-1666

Emack & Bolio’s
290 Newbury Street
Boston, MA 02115
(617) 536-7127

Picco
513 Tremont Street
Boston, MA 02116
(617) 927-0066

Toscanini's
899 Main Street
Cambridge, MA 02139
(617) 491-5877

Christina's Homemade Ice Cream
1255 Cambridge Street
Cambridge, MA 02139
(617) 492-7021