Business Trip to NYC/NJ aka Subsidized Week to Stuff my Fat Face with Delicious Food

I was originally going to wait til the end of the week to write about my trip to Jersey City for work, but I spent way too much time thinking/dreaming/eating of food to postpone it. I'm afraid all of the food will go straight to my head and I'll forget.

The view from the conference room - it's been a bit hazy.

I decided to take advantage of the location of the NJ office and flew in early on Sunday. The weather has been awesome - I felt about 7 drops of rain on Sunday, and it's been sun and hot temperatures the rest of the time. But to whoever invented air-conditioning - I love you. Anyways, that's the NYC skyline above. Not a bad view, and not a bad place to stay, even if it is Jersey. I'm only a few short stops away from Manhattan on the PATH (Port Authority Trans-Hudson), so it's nice and convenient to hop across state borders to some nice restaurants and nightlife. Jersey City isn't bad - but there's not much to do here. And when you're this close to NYC...well, there's really no excuse, is there?

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Sunday Night - Union Square

Sorry for the terrible photo :-\

 After I flew in, I basically checked into the hotel in Jersey City and navigated my way straight to Central Park. I don't know why I picked Central Park, I just thought it'd be cool. I met up with a friend and we probably ended up walking 3 miles. Or at least I did. I started at 80th St. on the West side of the Park, walked East across it, down to 60th St., back up to 80th St. (on a different Ave), then back down to Union Square where I ultimately had dinner. I went to Blue Water Grill at 16th St. and 4th Avenue or thereabouts and started with the Thai Calamari. Two people recommended this place (including the friend that I met up with) so I decided why not? The calamari was mostly forgettable - something like fried calamari tossed around in Frank's Red Hot sauce...with some julienned carrots and greens. Didn't remember to take a picture, and I'm not sad that I did. For the main, I had Blackened Swordfish with Sweet Potato Crabmeat Hash. What's not to love? Fish that fight with swords? Check. Sweet potato? Check. Morsels of crustacean? Check. Oh yea, can't forget about the potatoes. The first few bites were delectable - the swordfish didn't taste over-seasoned and the sweetness of the sweet potato sauce paired nicely with the crabmeat and hash. At first. I think I was just hungry from walking around for miles having only eaten half a cup of fruit and a latte at the airport in the morning. But then the sweet-potato sauce really kicked in and overpowered everything. A bit too sweet. The swordfish probably could have been taken out of the heat a couple of minutes earlier, but overall the fish tasted like swordfish should. I do love swordfish, so I was happy to have it again.

Monday Night - Hoboken

The first work-day at the Jersey City location went as expected. I met some people, asked some questions, sent a few emails, and created some synergy. Well not the last part but I just wanted to sound all corporate. Onto the fun part - the food! 

So this night, my friend-co-worker decided that she wasn't sick of me yet, and that she wasn't TOO cool to hang out with the Songster. So she invited me to dinner with her old colleague and friend from an unmentionable public accounting firm. This was the night I broke my rule - I never made it to Manhattan or even across state borders! I ended up in Hoboken, which turned out to be a REALLY cool city. Definitely loved Washington St. and the row of restaurants and bars. I had heard a lot of good things about the land of the hobos. I have to say that after spending an evening there, it would be a great option to live in if I had to move to the East Coast. For all of you Chicagoans, it reminded me a lot of Lincoln Park - particularly Armitage. How quaint. 

Ok so off-track again, and seriously, onto the food. After 4 dinners (so far) on this shove-food-down-my-gullet tour, this place was my second favorite meal. It's a Cuban place called La Isla Restaurant at 104 Washington St. And it was DAMN good:

Ceviche de Camarones

For a starter, we had a shrimp ceviche. It wasn't as acidic as I was expecting, but more sweet. It came with some great plantain chips that went really well with it. I'm always surprised at how unsweet plaintains can taste when in chip form. This appetizer was definitely a sign of tasty things to come.

For our mains, we decided to go family style on this mouth-watering Cuban food: 

Churrasco con Chimichurri

Ah, skirt steak. What an under-appreciated, but flavorful and perfectly textured piece of cow you are. Seriously, skirt steak is WAY under-rated. Whenever I see skirt steak on the menu, I immediately want it. F you beef tenderloin. But La Isla did it right - marinated perfectly so it wasn't salty in the slightest. That green stuff stole the show. An Argentinean style steak sauce, it was the right amount of bitter with the right amount of saltiness to give the steak a bit of a kick. Not that the churrasco needed anything extra, but hey, I'll let my taste-buds dance around different flavors anytime.

El Bistek Empanizado 

More beef. This time, it was breaded sirloin pounded thin, seared and topped with carmelized onions. Yea, I stole that description straight from the menu, but why try to re-invent the wheel, right? Maybe the Cuban version of chicken fried steak, it was crunchy and flavorful. It wasn't my favorite thing all night, but it was definitely worth trying. But none of the flavors really wowed me besides the initial crunch. Moving on...

Tasajo con Boniato

 Finally, we had some braised, dry-cured shredded beef. Yay for grazing animals with two stomachs! Yea, we had a lot of beef, but they ran out of some ingredients since we got there later than expected (my fault, I should probably read the train's destination that I'm boarding before I actually get on and sit down). It also came with some Cuban sweet potato (they're white and not that cool orange color!) and yellow rice with black beans. It had a lot of flavor...but what I remember the most was the salt. It was definitely tasty, but I couldn't eat too much of it at a time, having to be really careful about the amount I was eating. Good thing the rest of the plate was full of starchy goodness!

Overall, the trip to Hoboken was a smashing success! Dinner was awesome, Hoboken is a beautiful place that I could potentially call home, and lots of young people everywhere. Of course, not EVERYTHING went without some drama; see my post here for a summary on the end of the evening...

Tuesday Night - East Village

A Taste of Maine - Shrimp, Crab, and Lobster half-rolls

The sign outside proclaimed "NYC's best Lobster Rolls!" I know it's NYC and not Boston or Maine, but close enough, right? Oh, and damn you Food Network for showing me delicious foods from around the world that I want. I swear that if humans had to think in order to breathe, I'd spend half the day suffocating since I'd be so focused on where my next meal was coming from instead of getting oxygen in my lungs. Priorities though, am I right? 

Where was I...oh right, the rolls. Before Tuesday, I had never had a lobster roll before. This in of itself was a source of unparalleled sadness in my life. I was definitely expecting a messy lobster roll with all sorts of things that really aren't diet friendly. A giant mess that's worth it. But this lobster roll was pretty clean. A bit of creaminess from the mayo and a lil' tartness from some lemon juice. But not as much as I thought. This was a pretty pure lobster roll. The lobster meat itself was cooked perfectly - no rubbery texture here folks! Pinchy would be proud. The rolls were also fantastic - crisp and buttery, the way a roll should be. Now I know I got the shrimp and crab rolls too...but I really shouldn't have. They weren't anything special, and I actually didn't really enjoy them as much as I should have (I did dive right into the lobster roll first, so that probably explains it). I really need to book a trip to Boston soon and chase the "real" lobster roll places down. This was definitely my quickest meal of the week so far. Onto the best meal I've had all week...

Wednesday Night - Union Square^2 (that's supposed to be "squared") 

Crispy pork belly. Foie gras. Sea urchin. Where else can one eat all of these delights of the culinary world, all in one meal for one? Tapas of course, and more specifically, tapas at Mario Batali's Casa Mono! This place was pretty damn amazing. I mean, I can probably stop at the first line above and that would probably be enough to convince most people that love food to flock here. But it's me, and if you couldn't tell...I like to watch/hear myself type. 

First thing first - I got REALLY lucky when I got to this place tonight. It's small...and I don't just mean "small because it's NYC" small...I mean it was TINY, even for a restaurant in Manhattan! The place had maybe 6 tables and about a dozen seats around the bar and in front of the food prep area. When I got to Casa Mono, there was but one seat left and almost perfectly centered in front of the line chefs. I couldn't have asked for a better seat in the place while dining alone (with a side of tears tonight :-\). No need to stare at my phone all night - I was able to watch these guys prepare dish after dish. 

Red Snapper Crudo with Espalette and Pea Shoots

First up - the Red Snapper Crudo. Crudo as I learned is basically olive oil, citrus juice, and some seasoning mixed together with a raw fish. Almost reminiscent of a ceviche, except less citrus and served immediately after mixing (no real marinating here). The red snapper was served on top of two pieces of roasted red pepper. This was a really light but flavorful dish. A bit of a kick from the paprika, but everything worked so well together! I was really pleased as this was the only dish I was recommended by my server. Definitely a great recommendation, and a nice way to ease into the richer foods ahead of me.

Crispy Pork Belly with Sherry Ramp Sofrito and Uni

Ok, I didn't know you could combine two of my favorite foods into one. But apparently, you can, and the result is a flavor explosion. The belly of a pig is a delicious part of that dirty beast. The fat really is delicious. I love pork, it should really be "THE" white meat instead of the "OTHER" white meat. Here you have salty and crispy pork with creamy flavorful sea urchin on top, sitting in a bath of slowly stewed tomatoes (amongst other delicious ingredients I couldn't as easily make out). I mean, this dish was crazy. If I had to critique it, I would say the pork belly was kept in the fryer a few seconds too long. But that's IF I had to say something not-so-glowing. I really loved everything about this dish. And I purposely tried it before I bit into the next dish...

Foie Gras with Cinco Cebollas

I know a lot of people have issues with foie gras. And I really can't blame you. But honestly, have you tried the stuff??? Back in 2006, foie gras was actually banned in Chicago! Not that it mattered...5 years ago, I knew of foie gras, heard about how it was made, but I never had it. But luckily, the ban on foie gras has been lifted, and I've had the pleasure of having this over-stuffed bird liver twice in as many months. As a friend put it, "have you really ever had bad foie gras?" No LX, no I have not. 

I saw this on the menu and I immediately knew I had to have it. I was also hoping that it would be the last dish to be served, given how buttery and rich it is. It didn't come out last, but it came out with the pork belly and uni dish. I'll take it! Besides the foie gras and toasted bread beneath it was...5 types of onions. They weren't just onions, most were pickled in something that gave it a sweet flavor. The sauce itself (which I couldn't really figure out) was also sweet. It was definitely a nice balance, far better than the balance they tried to achieve with the sweet-potato sauce from Sunday's meal (remember that meal? You read about it hours ago at this point). 

I don't think I really have to go on about Casa Mono - I stumbled across it today on Yelp!, and I'm so glad I did. It was perhaps my favorite meal I have ever had in the city of New York...and I used to travel here quite a bit. 

More to come on the rest of my week, after it happens. I don't have a time machine like Steve Urkel so you'll have to wait. Damn, now I'm hungry again...