I Love Le Fooding

Last night, I was lucky enough to attend Le Fooding, a food event that takes leading chefs from New York and similarly acclaimed chefs from Paris and brings them together at one giant party. The event was at PS1 in Long Island City and was probably one of the cooler things I've done in New York. The crowd skewed French, but not a huge surprise there. The whole scene reminded me of a posh Chelsea (SW3, not 23rd street) party.

We were able to upgrade our tickets which gave us access to the space one hour ahead of everyone else, plus all you can drink clicquot during that hour. We made the rounds pretty quick, alternating between the French and American chefs.

Our first taste was a Mini Henry IV casserole, with creamed cow's cheese from Le Comptoir du Relais. Honestly, this was nothing like I anticipated. I expected little puff pastries, oozing with cheese. Instead, it was essentially a glorified chicken soup. It was good, but at the end of the day, it was chicken soup. It did come with a great piece of toasted bread that sopped up the soup well.

Next was the Bo Ssam--a mythic dish that David Chang serves up at Ssam Bar. Chang was there in the flesh, dishing it out to New Yorkers and French expats alike. The Bo Ssam of course met my lofty expectations. It came on a piece of bibb lettuce and was covered in sriracha. It was juicy, tender, and perfect. I would visit this table twice more before the evening ended.

At some point, Gael Greene wandered into view sans chapeau. We hit another French table, this time with barbecued sirloin steak from Bigarrade. This was a delectable skewer of two perfectly cooked cubes of sirloin. It was light and the chef's intent seemed to be showcase the meat, which he did quite well.

We wandered over to Wylie Dufresne's spot and sure enough, he was serving up chicken necks to the masses. I have mixed feelings on this dish. The protein was certainly a difficult one. It was very bony and difficult to maneuver given the setting (i.e. no tables). However, when I could get a piece of meat of the neck, paired with yuzu marmalade, it was actually pretty great.

One of the more interesting plates was fried corn with scallop butter from Diner in Brooklyn. The corn was plump, flavorful and the scallop butter was rich and smooth and balanced the fried corn well. It definitely inspired me to venture out to Brooklyn to check out this restaurant.

The final chef's table, pork ribs with pineapple teriyaki from Ze Kitchen Galerie in Paris. I found this a gutsy choice for a French chef, given what an iconicly American dish ribs are. However, I appreciated the playfulness of the ribs and they were falling off the bone good. The sauces that came with the ribs further enhanced the flavor, especially an eggplant sauce that was creamy and reminded me of mezze.

On top of all that, there was a delightful cheese course, plenty of champagne, and ice cream from General Greene. The ice cream was awesome, even on a chilly autumn evening. The first flavor was a salted hazelnut gianduja and the second was bourbon vanilla. The vanilla was good and heavy on the bourbon. The salted hazelnut gianduja was awesome. Salted anything is always better (e.g. salted caramel). Despite the fact the ice cream was made without eggs, it still had a great texture.

After all the Le Fooding fun, you'd think we'd make haste to the 7-train back to Manhattan. We instead decided to hit Dutch Kills, the LIC speakeasy spot from Sasha Petraske of Milk & Honey fame. I opted for the bartender's choice, which was a great call. My favorite drink was a blackberry bramble which was sufficiently boozy but still retained an amazing blackberry flavor. Cocktails were a more reasonable $10 (in Manhattan they are now approaching $25 at spots) and it was a great way to cap of the night.

Cue Town

First off, apologies for the lack of postings. With fall in full swing, expect more updates about food happenings all over the tri-state.

Despite being one of my favorite cuisines, I never am eating as much barbecue as I would like to be. As luck would have it, barbecue is on my dinner list twice this week.

My first journey was to Fette Sau, a Williamsburg bbq spot that has garnered raves from the NYC bbq community. This was my second visit and it continues to impress me for having some of the best meat around.

Fette Sau is not huge on ambience, but that is really not a factor when you are eating bbq. Each visit, I ordered across the board, meaning a little bit of everything on the ever-changing menu (seriously, the menu changed twice in the hour we spent there). Standouts were the pulled pork and pork belly. The pulled pork was smoky and not overly fatty and the bbq sauce that you can douse it in is a delicious complement to the protein. The pork belly surprised me. On my first visit, it was too much belly, not enough pork. This time it was charred well and was a nice blend between fatty and lean. The pork tenderloin was a nice, leaner option that was juicy and well-seasoned as was the brisket. The pork sausage is spicy and savory, but too rich for more than a few bites. The short rib was probably my least favorite. It was difficult to maneuver and did not have fall off the bone quality I was seeking.

Fette Sau is all about the meat. The sides are not the focus. My dining mates loved the burnt end baked beans. Previously I had the broccoli salad, which was so unsatisfying matched against the richness of the meat.

Following Fette Sau, we took advantage of the Van Leuween ice cream truck. I tried the cinnamon ice cream. It was intensely cinnamon. It had a grainy texture, likely from the ground cinnamon and both my friend and I agreed lack the classic creamy texture of ice cream. My other friend had the root beer float and I definitely was envious. All and all, a delicious excursion to Williamsburg.

Heading to Blue Smoke tomorrow. Should be an interesting comparison.