The Epicurious Runner

I was very happy to oblige when my brother in-law suggested we go out to a Korean restaurant. I had yet to eat Korean food and I had been dying to try it. Okay so technically i twas Japanese and Korean, but I was excited because my sister, Kerri and her husband, Scott said this place was awesome and they didn’t mind going two weekends in a row.

We arrived at Shira Kiku on a Saturday night a little after 8 o’clock. I believe we had the same waitress as they did the previous weekend. She was extremely outgoing and friendly and made us feel very welcome! It was nice to have such an involved waitress who seemed to actually care that we enjoyed our time there and our meal.

After studying the menu for several minutes, we decided on some sushi for an appetizer and we were finally ready to place our orders for our entrees.

I, of course ordered a drink to go with my meal, since I just spent hours and hours traveling that day. I got a Hawaiian Mai Tai and it was so perfectly made! Mmm, I would go back just for that drink.

Miso Soup came with our meal, which is Japanese and it was the first time I had ever tried it. It was so good and light, I loved it! I drank every last bit.

My sister and I both ordered the same meal;

STONEPOT BIBIMBOP, Bibimbop in hot stone pot. This

was listed under the Korean Specials and it seemed like the perfect thing to get.

This comes with a barely cooked egg on top, you can barely see it underneath there, but apparently when they have time and aren’t busy, they will crack the egg fresh at your table. They then come around and stir your pot up, which allows the egg to cook completely and it becomes mixed in with the rest of the pot.

I can’t remember exactly what Scott ordered, but it was definitely one of the hottest things on the menu. I tried a bite and it was delicious, just like the rest of our food.

I was happy that my pot was filled with lots of vegetables! It also came with a sauce to pour over it and I ended up using the whole thing, it was definitely necessary. The Bibimbop had kind of a light flavor to it, it wasn’t super saucy or overwhelming with any one flavor. It tasted fresh and healthy, but it was also very filling. I feel like I barely made a dent by the time I called it quits. It was so good that I made sure to pack it up and bring the rest of it back to NYC in a cooler with an ice pack. I definitely wanted these leftovers!

I can’t wait to go back to NH so I can bring Derek here, he missed out on this awesome meal. I am also proud to say I ate my whole meal with chopsticks, Ha!

Greetings, readers! My name is Dave Conte, and I’ve been invited to share the details of a recent dinner by my good friend Steph, resident foodie and marathon runner extraordinaire. I hope you enjoy this entry as much as I enjoyed the dinner I’m writing about.

Monday was my birthday, and it was a big one. The big two-five. A quarter-century. Finally, after all these years I can rent a car at a moderately respectable price. Finally, I can… Well, that’s it, I guess. Only thing left to look forward to is death after a hopefully long and fulfilling life.

It was a pretty lousy day, honestly. I had a raging sore throat all day, which bummed me out because my girlfriend and I had some big plans to celebrate. Dinner, movie, and ice cream. The usual date night for us, but a little more upscale this time.

Well, we skipped the movie, but we did the dinner, because this is a dinner I’ve been looking forward to for years now. If there was ever anything I could check off of a bucket list, it would be this, and I wasn’t going to let a sore throat stand between me and this life-long goal of mine:

Eating a Kobe Steak.

My friends, let me tell you: It was perfect. Not just the steak, but the whole meal was otherworldly. Easily the best meal I’ve ever had, and it was fairly well-priced given the cost of the steak.

Uncle Jack’s Steakhouse on 35th and 9th was the place. When we arrived we were instantly enamored with the decor and beautiful atmosphere. The sophistication of this place was through the roof. The waitstaff was incredibly friendly and informative. It was truly a pleasure to be served by these people.

We started out with a lovely basket of assorted breads. The thin crackers were exceptionally good, along with the bread that was seasoned with a little bit of dill. A divine way to begin the meal.

After about 20 minutes, the steaks finally came along with our wine. They have an ENORMOUS selection of wine, by the way, and I wish I wrote down what we ordered, but alas I forgot. Anyway, the steaks! I got the 16oz Kobe Steak, my girlfriend got a 12oz NY Strip, both cooked medium, and we split a side of garlic mashed and asparagus. Heaven. Pure heaven.
My girlfriend’s steak and the sides:

And here’s the Kobe Steak:

Words can’t describe this thing. All I can say is that it’s perfect. The texture, the flavor, the consistency, everything. Everything you could ever want in a steak is right here. It was utterly spellbinding and nothing, not one thing could have made it better. If you’re like me and you’re a big steak person, having a Kobe steak at some point in your life should be a requirement, not a desire. You will never have anything quite like it. I wish I could be more descriptive but when it comes to perfection, how can you be?

And the sides? Also perfect. The mashed potatoes carried with them a subtle hint of garlic underneath the rich, fluffy texture of the potatoes. Resting atop the mashed potatoes was a single baked potato chip which tied the whole thing together. The asparagus was sauteed to perfection and cooked to the exact right texture.

The meal ended with a complimentary birthday souffle that I unfortunately tore into before snapping a picture of it:

Chocolate souffle with whipped cream, blueberries, a strawberry, and caramel sauce on the side. The waiter shook my hand and congratulated me for making it to 25. It was the perfect end to a perfect night.

*Note: This is a little late, as in 2 1/2 months late, sorry Dave!

Mmm, don’t those look good, these are Spicy Curry Mussels that are my absolute favorite. I have been waiting and dreaming about these mussels since the last time we had them. From the menu: Spicy Curry Style with curry, coconut milk, lemongrass and a touch of spicy chili sauce.

After getting back from the lake last Saturday morning, we headed back to my sister’s condo to chill out for a while before we headed up to the Portsmouth Brewery. Derek and I have been dying to go to the Portsmouth Brewery for some time now, we have not been there since over a year ago. Not only do they have their own delicious beer that they brew in house, but they have amazing food to pair all the beer with.

I know it’s late, but here is my Mesa Grill review from Valentine’s Day.

I hope you all had a great Valentine’s Day because I know I did! My fiance and I were lucky enough to get a reservation at Bobby Flay’s restaurant Mesa Grill. We made reservations last Monday and the only time we could get was at 9:45 pm. It was really late, but we took it anyway.

They had a prixe fix menu going on and it looked amazing. We arrived early and enjoyed a drink at the bar while waiting. I had a Tom Collins and Derek got a Gin and Tonic. The drinks were expensive, but delicious. We ended up scoring an awesome table and we were both starving by the time we sat down. Like I said, the menu looked awesome and there were so many good options.

As an appetizer I ordered the Blue Corn Pancake with Barbecue Duck Breast. The duck was really good and they definitely did not skimp on it. It was the first time I had duck and I was extremely impressed.

Dinner for me was Espresso Encrusted Filet Mignon with Scalloped Potatoes. I ordered it medium and it came out perfectly cooked. I almost think I liked the scalloped potatoes the best though. They had so much flavor to them and I was impressed that the side dish tasted as good as it did.

Dessert. Toasted Coconut Layer Cake. Mmmmmm. That’s all I can say. This cake looked really dense, but let me tell you, it was one of the lightest cakes I’ve ever had. I ate the whole thing.

Derek ordered the Chocolate Corn Bread Pudding. Even though my cake was delicious, I think he ordered the best dessert on the menu. During the course of the meal I drank 2 glasses of wine, a white and a red and Derek had two beers.

With dessert I had a cappuccino and Derek had a coffee. It was the perfect compliment to the dessert and a nice way to end the night.

This restaurant was great and I already can not wait to go back. Yes it’s pricey, but in my opinion it does not matter because you are paying for the quality of the food and it’s so delicious that it’s definitely worth it. The portion sizes are perfect and you are able to eat everything without feeling overwhelmingly stuffed at the end.

This is a 5 star restaurant that earned it’s 5 stars in my book.

Bobby Flay, I love you!

Derek and I were really craving burgers last night so we did a little bit of research online and decided on a place called Bareburger. They specialize in a variety of different burgers and practically everything they serve is organic. You have a huge list of options for what kind of burger you want. They have piedmontese beef, turkey, grilled chicken, veggie burger, portabella mushroom, bison, elk, ostrich, or lamb! They also had a great list of all natural cane soda and milk shakes.

They served water in these great little pitchers. I totally want one of these!

I went with the vanilla creme soda and Derek got the cane cola.

The specials they had going on were amazing! I knew what I wanted right away. The Spicy Bacon Elk Burger and it was only $10! I was already impressed with this place before our food even came. Derek got the same burger and we decided to split a basket of fries that came with three different dipping sauces.

The fries reminded me of  french fries you would get at a fair, which is a good thing! They were delicious. There was curry ketchup, which I actually didn’t like very much. Derek loved it, but I felt like I was just eating a bottle of curry powder. Then there was chipotle mayo and some kind of bareburger ‘special sauce’ I enjoyed the other two sauces, but honestly they were nothing spectacular. I still enjoyed the fries a lot though.

This burger was amazing! The bun was excellent, it held everything together nicely and it was the perfect amount of bread to meat ratio. It was cooked just as I asked and it was just the right size. This was my first time eating elk and I must say it was tasty. The sauce was nice and spicy and I could taste everything on the burger separately and was therefore able to enjoy every aspect of it. I ate the whole thing and didn’t feel too full at the end of it. We sat for a while contemplating a milkshake for dessert and we ended up getting a warm brownie with ice cream AND a peanut butter and jelly milk shake! Mmmmm, it was so good!

Sorry for the blurry picture.

We were STUFFED after this! The shake was humongous and it we were able to fill up two glasses with just one shake. It was a perfect size to split, but we definitely didn’t need the brownie. The milk shake was nice and thick and it really did taste like peanut butter and jelly. I’m going to have to re-create this myself at home.

Overall this was a fantastic find and I was impressed with everything I had. The prices surprised me considering everything was organic. It was definitely reasonably priced and I can’t wait to go back. I think I’m going to try the Ostrich next time!

Rating: 5 out of 5

Oh and they are supposed to be getting organic beer and wine very shortly. They are just waiting for their Liquor License to be approved. Let’s pray they have stuff on tap!

Derek and I headed out on a double date with our friends Kelly and Cory to The Heartland Brewery. There are 5 or 6 locations around the city and I fell upon one the other day while doing something for work. We decided to hit up the one in Union Sq.

On a side note, I’ve decided to start giving restaurant reviews, with this being my first official one.

It’s a large place with plenty of seating up and down stairs. They also hold events quite frequently, which is a plus because in my opinion it is hard to find a great food and beer place to hold any kind of event. The menu is great, the only downside is that it’s a little pricey. Even the sandwiches were $10+ which is sort of a let down for me right now because I have no job so I had to make sure I didn’t get something super expensive. Otherwise I usually don’t mind spending a little bit of money on good food.

I decided on the Pulled Pork sandwich just like the rest of the table. Yes, we all got the same thing. Before the food though, I had to figure out my beer selection. I was very happy to see that they had a sampler available. There were 6 house beers and they also had 4 or 5 seasonal selections. Of course all the beer was brewed inside the premises. I went with the sampler that included the 6 house beers + 1 seasonal selection, in which I chose the Smiling Pumpkin Ale.

It was great to try 75 % of their beer all in one sitting. I honestly can’t wait to go back to try the rest of the seasonal beer.

The house beers are in order from the first one pictured here in the bottom left hand corner then around to the right and the Pumpkin Seasonal is in the middle. My favorite was probably the pumpkin, it had a strong flavor and wasn’t too sweet. After that I enjoyed the Indian River Light second best. I couldn’t believe how much flavor it had for being a light beer.

The pulled pork sandwich was excellent! The fries were good, they were labeled as spicy fries, but really they didn’t have much flavor in the spicy department. I finished the whole thing though. I especially liked that it came with a pickle.

Because it was a little pricey…

Rating: 4 out of 5

Okay I’m a little late posting this, but what else is new right? Derek and I have been dating for 6 years since this past Wednesday, the 23rd. I can’t believe it’s been so long, time really does fly. We had an amazing anniversary. On Wednesday we had our first paid job. We helped film a live webcast of a business conference that was based on electric transporation. It was pretty interesting, but a pretty long day overall. The conference was over around 230 and after that we packed up all the equipment and ended up going out for a drink with some of the ‘business’ people who put the conference on. We went to a place called The Algonquin, which is a hotel and they had a really nice bar inside. We both had Hemingways, which was a pretty girl drink, but they were damn good. It was the suggested drink of the afternoon. The woman in charge paid for every one’s drink!

We came home, got changed and did some research on where we should go out to eat. We couldn’t find anything that really sparked our interest. We were really hoping to find a place with good food and even better beer. We decided to just stay in the area and walk around until we fell upon a good place to go. We ended up walking for a lot longer than I had expected, well what seemed a lot longer because my feet were absolutely killing me. I wore shoes that were apparently too small for my feet.

Anyways, we finally decided on this place called Sanford’s.

It was a small place and pretty dark inside, but the menu looked fantastic. They did have a great beer selection, but unfortunately nothing was on tap. It was our anniversary though and we knew we had to go all out with everything we ordered.

First up, the appetizer; it was a special for the night: Mussels

And beer, OF COURSE!

The Oktoberfest was my first beer.

The Jenlain was Derek’s first, which was REALLY GOOD! I don’t know why I didn’t order one.

The mussels were good, definitely some of the best I’ve had, but nothing has yet to live up to the mussels from the Portsmouth Brewery. I was really impressed with this place, we will definitely be going back! The atmosphere was great and the service even better. The manager/owner came over to our table towards the end of the night and introduced himself to us. We had a good little chat and he said that he is a wine guy and his brother is the beer guy  (They also have a HUGE selection of wine). He gave us his card and when the waitress gave us our check she said  ’The dessert is on Chris (the owners name), Welcome to Sanfords. We couldn’t believe he gave us free dessert. We were totally high rollers that night!

Here is the rest of our food!

This is what I ordered, a medium steak with cajun fries.

Derek got this mountain of pork that literally fell of the bone and was so delicious with garlic mashed potatoes. He always manages to order the most extravagant thing on the menu.

Derek and I both ordered this beer for our second round. It won the ‘Best Beer in the World’ award from Beer Advocate in 2008. GOOD!

A Belgian style waffle with pecans, bananas, and caramel. YUM! This is what we got for free.

We split this bottle for our dessert beverage. It was really good, but I was STUFFED by the time we left.

It was a great anniversary! I love Derek so much and we really are perfect for each other!

Oh yeah, we FINALLY have internet in our apartment so you can expect a lot more posts more frequently! I’m going out to the Heartland Brewery tonight in Union Sq. Be back later with a recap on that.

Edited to add:

Because there was absolutely no beer on tap:

Rating: 4 out of 5