September 2015 – FoodPrint of Bing

FoodPrint-Twin Cities: Cafe Lurcat

Restaurant:
Cafe Lurcat

Address:
1624 Harmon Pl
Minneapolis, MN 55403

Category:
American, French

Average:
$25-40/person

Review:
My friends and I tried out this lovely restaurant in Minnesapolis near Loring Park last weekend. The restaurant is facing the park with a gorgeous view. The setting of the restaurant is really clean, simple and semi-fancy. Part of the restaurant was based on a old brick house and they really showcased it by having a old brick tunnel between the the bar and the restaurant. Though kind of sketchy, the tunnel actually added a sense of history to the restaurant. Whether you like it or not is totally personal preference.

For appetizer, I ordered Roasted Beet and Arugula Salad with Goat Cheese and Sweet Onion Bavarois. I’m normally not a beet person and the sole reason I ordered this dish is that I misread beet as beef… However, this dish changed my idea a little about beets. Beets in this salad is roasted nicely and all the moisture was locked inside. The sweetness was nicely preserved and a hint of freshness also persists. While dish in general was set up in a clean fashion with no excess liquid to make it sloppy. Goat cheese has a great flavor but I did not like it with the veggies. However it matches really well with the freshly baked bread.

For entree, I ordered Hanger Steak with Roasted Onions Madeira and Garlic Confit, The serving was smaller than I expected, with only 6 slices of steak. The steak was a little bit overcooked in my opinion since I forgot to ask for a medium rare. It was cooked really well but the meat quality was not prime. I really like the sauce, which has black pepper and some soy flavor. The combined flavor was quite pleasing.

Finally, I chose Dark Chocolate Profiteroles with Salted Caramel Ice Cream and Spiced Candied Pecans as my desert. I really enjoyed the ice cream and the chocolate profiteroles. The chocolate profiterole was a little hard to cut above a soft ice cream but it was manageable. It is a good closing of a meal.

In general, this is a good restaurant with decent pricing. Food is well cooked but not with prime ingredients. The service was quite well. In the end, it is worth recommending for people who are looking for a casual/semi-formal place to enjoy a nice dinner in the twin cities area.

Summer Home Kitchen — Mango Spring Roll with Thai Curry Sauce

Hey guys! Here is another episode of Summer Home Kitchen! This time what I am presenting is the Mango Spring Roll with Thai Curry Sauce. This dish looks very simple but it does take some time and effort to make so sit back, relax, and enjoy!

Name: Mango Spring Roll with Thai Curry Sauce

A little info:
This dish is inspired by a restaurant I went to during the summer. It is quite a novel combination for making spring rolls and the taste is amazing. It is especially suitable for the summer as a refreshing appetizer. Spring roll is relatively easy to make but the sauce will take a long preparation time.

Ingredients:

–For Thai Curry Sauce
Vegetable oil — 2 tablespoons
Minced green onions — 1/3 cup
Minced peeled fresh ginger — 1 tablespoon
Minced garlic cloves — 2
Thai red curry paste — 2 tablespoons
Smooth peanut butter — 3/4 cup
Canned unsweetened coconut milk — 1 cup
Chicken/veggie stock — 1/2 cup
Sugar — 1 tablespoon
Soy sauce — 1 tablespoon
Black pepper — 1/2 teaspoon
Fresh lime juice — 2 1/2 tablespoons
Chopped fresh cilantro — 1/2 cup

–For Mango Spring Roll
Spring mix veggie — 300g
Avocado — 2
Mango — 2
Dried mushroom — 200g
Dried shrimp — 100g
Spring roll wrap — 1 pack (available at most Asian grocery store)

Let’s cook it up!

–For Thai Curry Sauce
1. Heat pan with oil to medium heat

2. Sauté minced garlic, ginger and green onions for 2 mins

3. Add in Thai red curry paste, peanut butter, coconut milk, stock, sugar, soy sauce, and black pepper

4. Keep whisking and heat at medium heat for 5-10 mins

5. Remove from heat, cool down, add in lime juice

6. Serve with minced cilantro, now you have Thai Curry Sauce!

–For Mango Spring Roll
1. Push dried mushroom in warm water for 30 mins

2. Dice mushroom, sauté it with small dried shrimp for 5 mins, then set it aside to cool down

3. Peel avocado and mango, slice them

4. Fill a big bowl with warm tap water

5. Dip one sheet of spring roll wrap in warm water, take it out and put it on a flat surface

6. Put some spring veggie mix on top, then 2 slices of mango and 2 slices of avocado, some mushroom and shrimp

7. Wrap it like a spring roll (or burrito, whichever way you prefer), now you have Mango Spring Roll!

8. Serve it with Thai curry sauce and enjoy!

Summer Home Kitchen — Pan Fried Fish

Hey guys! Here is a new episode of Summer Home Kitchen! Today what I bring to you is another Italian dish Pan Fried Fish! It is incredibly easy to make and the taste is amazing. After tasting it, my friend immediately decided to use this recipe at his family dinner. So come check this out!

Name: Pan Fried Fish

A little info:
A good seafood dish is what I always crave during the summer. This dish uses a slightly unconventional way of cooking fish and the taste is truly amazing. All ingredients are easy to find in local grocery store and preparation time of this dish is only 5-10 minutes!

Ingredients:

Filleted monkfish (or fish of your preference) — 500g
Cherry tomato — 300g
Dry chili — 10g
Vegetable stock — 200ml
Cilantro — 200g
Garlic — 3~5 pieces
Olive oil
Black pepper
Salt
(Maybe olives and anchovy)

Let’s cook it up!

Rub olive oil with salt and black pepper on both sides of the fish fillet

Dice dried chili, garlic and cilantro, slice cherry tomatos

Heat up the vegetable stock to medium warm

Add 2 spoon of olive oil in a frying pan, heat up the pan at medium heat

Add in diced garlic

Put in fish fillet, fry each side for 2-3 minutes

Add vegetable stock and dice tomato, cilantro and dried chili

Cover the pan with aluminum foil or lid, keep the pan on medium high heat for 20-25 minutes

Serve! Now you have Pan Fried Fish!

Summer Home Kitchen — Summer Meatball Pasta

This time we have a nice homemade Italian dish — Meatball Pasta! This is an incredibly easy dish to make and all the ingredients are very commonly used in other dishes so there is no need to shop for fancy stuff. Be sure to check it out!

Name: Summer Meatball Pasta

A little info:

Pasta is one of the most common Italian dishes and it can be adjusted based on each individual’s taste. Essentially, every ingredient in the pasta can be changed based on personal preference and you can almost never go wrong with it!

Ingredients:

Spaghetti — 250g

Cherry tomato — 100g

Ground pork — 100g

Baby spinach — 50g

Dry chili — 5g

Mozzarella — 20g

Olive oil — 3 table spoon

Salt

Let’s cook it up!

1. Dice half of the spinach, splice all cherry tomatoes in half, shred fresh mozzarella

2. Mix ground pork with diced spinach and some salt

3. Heat pan with oil to medium high heat, heat a pot of water for cooking spaghetti at the same time

4. Split mixed pork into balls and fry them in the pan till the outside of the meatballs looks yellow

5. Push in sliced tomatos and spinach, at a cup of water, turn stove to medium heat and cover the pan with either a lid or aluminum foil

6. Push in all spaghetti used the “twist and release” technique

7. Keep stirring the pot of spaghetti to prevent sticking, cook spaghetti for 7 minutes

8. Remove cover from the pan, dry the cooked pasta then mix it with meatball and vegetables in the pan then add some salt

9. Stir for 2-3 minutes, then serve with diced mozzarella on top

10. Tadda! Now you have Summer Meatball Pasta

Summer Home Kitchen — Thai Red Curry with Sausage

Episode 2 of Summer Home Kitchen is here! What I am bringing to you this time is some Thai Food! Anyone who enjoys spicy food and curry cannot miss this! Since I ran out of some side ingredients, I decided to WING it and add something special in the curry to create my own flavor. Be sure to check it out!

Name: Thai Red Curry with sausage

A little info:
Red curry is the signature of Thai Food and it is amazing because it goes well with almost everything. Also since red curry paste can be directly bought from store, this makes it incredibly easy to cook you own kind of Thai red curry. If you enjoy spicy food, this should be on your “must try” list!

Ingredients:

Thai red curry paste — 3-5 table spoons (depends on personal tolerance)
Coconut milk — 2 cups
Peanut butter — 3 table spoons
Chicken or veggie stock — 1 cup
Potato — 500g
Chinese sausage — 300g
Mushroom — 150g
Tofu — 300g
Onion — 200g
Thai Basil — 50g
Rice
Vegetable oil

Let’s cook it up!

Start cooking the rice (One trick: put sausage with rice together during cooking will give rice a nice smoked flavor

Dice potato, sausage, mushroom, tofu, onion and basil during the preparation part

Heat the pot, put 2-3 table spoon vegetable oil in, wait for the oil to be medium heat

Put in all diced potato, along with 1-2 table spoons of red curry paste.

Saute potato with the red curry past for 3 mins. Then add in onion, mushroom and tofu. Keep stirring for 2 mins

Add in the rest red curry paste, coconut milk, peanut butter (crushed peanuts would be better), chicken/veggie stock, diced basil and diced sausages.

Keep the pot on medium heat for 30 minutes , stir thoroughly every 3 minutes

Now you have Thai Red Curry with Sausage!

Serve it with rice, use basil leaf as garnish

Summer Home Kitchen — Kimchee Fried Rice

Summer Home Kitchen is here! This is a new program for FoodPrint! This summer I have not been traveling around so most of food I had are home cooked. I decided to document them and put down the recipe if anyone is interested! Most of the recipes I have here are modified from some existing ones but I added some elements of myself (AKA I didn’t get those needed ingredients). Without further ado, here comes the first one! Hope you enjoy!

Name: Kimchee Fried Rice

A little info:
Kimchee is korean pickled cabbage, which has a flavorful spicy and sour taste that matches really well with the flat taste of rice. Kimchee fried rice is easy to make and is great for summer time because the sour flavor will bring you a special kind of coolness.

Ingredients:

Kimchee — 300g
Kimchee juice — 50ml
Rice — 500g
Green Onion — 20g
Tomato — one
Egg — 5
Ham — 100g
Olive Oil
Soy sauce
Salt

Let’s Start Cooking!

Cook the rice using a rice cooker, preferably with less than usual water since damp cooked rice is not ideal for fried rice cooking

Blend all five eggs, dice green onions, tomato, ham and Kimchee.

Heat up the pan, then put in olive oil. When the oil reaches medium hot, put in eggs and fry them. Then sauté diced green onion, tomato and ham for 2-4 minutes.

Take out fried egg, ham and vegetables.

Put some olive oil into heated pan, then put in cooked rice. Fry the rice for 1-2 minutes. Put in fried egg/veggie mix. Stir with some soy sauce and salt for 3 minutes.

Put in all diced Kimchee, along with Kimchee sauce. Keep stirring the fried rice with egg/veggie mix until all rice is tinted with Kimchee’s red color.

Plate it. Now you have Kimchee Fried Rice!

*Many of the ingredients used in the egg/veggie mix can be changed based on personal preference.

FoodPrint-Boston: Stella

Restaurant:
Stella

Address:
1525 Washington St
Boston, MA 02118
b/t Mystic St & Brookline St in South End

Category:
Italian

Average:
$40/person

Review:
This is an unexpected dining experience I had in Boston. After my awful visit to Boston’s South end Giacomo’s, I decided to find a restaurant nearby to had dinner with my friends. Stella was the one that we picked based on its relatively decent review in the south end area.

When we arrived at this restaurant, we were seated immediately even without a reservation. This was pretty unusual for a restaurant on Sunday night. The inside decoration was very modern and neat. It looked pretty nice but lacked the authentic Italian element. The service there was very satisfying and all waiters were very passionate.

We ordered Seafood Risotto to share with each other. This dish was very nicely arranged and served. However, after tasting it, I had to say that this was pretty disappointing. The sour flavor from tomato was too strong, which almost completely covered the flavor from mussels and fish. Risotto was too soft and watery and made this whole dish more like a soup.

In addition, I ordered Braised Short Rib for my entree. This was a pizza with short rib on top. The appearance of this dish was not quite attractive but its taste totally surprised me. The short rib was well cooked and had a sweet flavor. But only the sweet rib couldn’t make it an amazing dish. The most surprising part was the bitterness came from kale, which matched really well with the sweetness from its rib. The combination of sweetness and bitterness really enriched the layers of flavor in this dish. Even though the bread was a little overcooked, I would still say this is a pretty nice dish.

In general, Stella is a decent restaurant with a lot of space for improvement.

FoodPrint-New York City: Pates Et Traditions

Restaurant:
Pates Et Traditions

Address:
52 Havemeyer StBrooklyn,
NY 11211
b/t 7th St & 6th St in Williamsburg – North Side

Category:
French, brunch

Average:
$25/person

Review:
Pates Et Traditions is a little restaurant for brunch located in Williamsburg. Right around the corner, there is this little restaurant with a nice outdoor setting that serves fantastic crepe.

There is practically no limit on what kind of crepe you can order. While ordering, you can ask for all kinds of extra ingredients combination you want to put on your crepe. As a greedy eater myself, I had sundry tomatoes, salmon, Italian sausage, egg, ham and cheese added into my crepe and this magical mix turned out to be great.

The crepe was very thin and crispy. It was not overcooked but had a quite hard texture. However, the most amazing part is their cooking of the inside stuffing. Sundry tomato perfectly blended with eggs and sausage, which brought a little sour taste to the whole crepe and this really helped its flavor as a brunch dish. The little amount of salmon also added some depth into its favor.

In general, this is a nice little restaurant to go to in NYC for some interesting tasting Crepes if you are full of creativity.

FoodPrint-New York City: Malatesta Trattoria

Restaurant:
Malatesta Trattoria

Address:
649 Washington St
New York, NY 10014
b/t 10th St & Christopher St in West Village

Category:
Italian

Average:
$25/person

Review:
This is the first restaurant that I tried in NYC. With a great location in a relatively quiet neighborhood, this small restaurant was literally located around the corner. The restaurant has a very italian style design and decoration. Not so classy but very casual and relaxing. We had our reservation at 7 and we were seated right on time. However, based on some other people’s review, reservation may not be necessary if you are going on a week day. They had both indoor and outdoor seats, although outdoor seats were mostly doubles.

Waiter served typical Italian roll with vinegar and oil. However, their vinegar and oil are specially made with some chili mixed, which surprisingly brought up a magic taste of vinegar. That was so far the best vinegar and oil mixed I have ever had in an Italian restaurant.

For entree, I ordered Spinach Gnocchi, which was marked as one of the signature dishes of this restaurant online. The taste was fabulous, although the cheese flavor was a little bit too strong. Gorgonzola was used in the sauce, which gave me a very attractive taste at first. But after a while, the strong flavor just made my tongue tired. The spinach gnocchi itself was well-cooked, with a very soft taste and the light scent of spinach added a lot of score on this dish. However, since I am a huge meat lover, this dish doesn’t quite fit my preference.

In general, this restaurant is has a nice italian setting. The food was quite authentic and delicious. But since the menu are in Italian and it was handwritten, it could be hard to pick one dish that fit your preference. So before you go, online research about the menu is highly suggested.

FoodPrint-New York City: Ippudo Ramen(Westside)

Restaurant:
Ippudo Ramen(Westside)

Address:
321 W 51st St
New York, NY 10019
b/t 9th Ave & 8th Ave in Hell’s Kitchen,
Midtown West, Theater District

Category:
Ramen

Average:
$30/person

Review:
Ippudo Ramen is always considered as one of the best Ramen place in NYC. However, because of it popularity, Ippudo NY is always a hard place to get a seat in. Therefore, its sister restaurant Ippudo Westside seems to be a better choice to go and try out their famous ramen.

Along the sidewalk, Ippudo Westside is place that you can easily miss. However, the inner decoration is quite neat and modern. Since this is a new site, the waiting line was not too long. We waited for about 20 minutes to get in. The utensils setting on the table was very carefully arranged. This left me with a great first impression.

I only ordered ramen for my meal. Akamaru Modern is one of the few ramens they have on the menu. The traditional pork broth for ramen had a very authentic favor here. The broth was white, with sliced pork arranged around the ramen noodle. The seasonal mushroom sure brought out the delicate favor of the pork broth. But the most amazing part is their secret umami dama miso paste. This red color sauce had a slightly sour and spicy tasted. Combined with the pork broth, this miso paste added a changing favor to the whole ramen dish.

If you are in the mood for ramen noodle in NYC and don’t want to wait for 2 hours to get in, Ippudo Westside should be a perfect choice for you.