VittlesVamp

Turkish Delight in Astoria

Cronuts - the croissant-meets-donut hybrid from Dominique Ansel's Soho bakery - have been getting more than their fair share of attention from pastry lovers as of late. That's all well and good, if you can get on line early enough to snag one of the coveted treats.

However, I am here today to tell those dessert fiends who are not early risers to grab their MetroCards, leave Spring Street far behind, and hit the wilds of Astoria, Queens to experience a sweet revelation - in the form of a visit to Güllüoglu Baklava & Cafe.

This Turkish gem is brimming with flaky baklava and pastry in a myriad of shapes, sizes and flavors. It's enough to make a girl swoon in sweet anticipation of the first bite, and the second, and the third...

There is Cevizli Baklava stuffed with walnuts, Fistikli Baklava filled with bright green pistachios, and Ozel Baklava which is double stuffed with pistachios. And, did I mention the Sekerpare semolina cookies, Acibadem almond cookies, and the squares of Turkish bread pudding, called Ekmek Kadayifi? If that's not enough, how about Turkish clotted cream, known as Kaymak, and rose-flavored Gullu Lokum candy? My favorite, pictured above, are the bakery's Visneli Baklava, packed with sour cherries.

And, if you can't handle going to Queens for your sweet fix, you'll be pleased to know that Güllüoglu also has outposts in Midtown Manhattan, Brighton Beach and even Cliffside, New Jersey. You'll have to wait a long while before Cronuts get that kind of metro-area distribution!

Elmhurst Asian Food Market Porn

It's all about the visuals today. A brief tableau of foodstuff finds at the jam-packed Pacific Supermarket on Broadway and the little Thai Grocery on Woodside Avenue in the heart of Elmhurst, Queens. And, for the record, Chef Andy Ricker of Pok Pok likes to shop at the latter!

There's Something About Caviar

It's decadence. Spoonfuls of decadence. And, sometimes that is just what I need to perk me up when I'm blue.

My pal Jim understood full well, when last night he graciously opened up a jar of deep black, brackish beauties, along with some creme fraiche. Slathered atop water crackers, it was bliss.

Same can be said for a dinner of eggs, cooked low and slow to soft scrambled, bright yellow perfection, adorned with a dollop of sour cream and a generous smattering of caviar, then showered with freshly snipped chives. Supper of the Gods.

I'm sure you're wondering how exactly I can afford to indulge in caviar with such abandon. Did I win Lotto? Nope. But, lucky for me, Jim works for a caviar importer.

What can I say? It's good to know people in all the right places.

I'm hoping he gets a truffle client next!

Mum's the Word

It's magic. Undeniable magic. A meal can be great -- but it is made more so by a mother's love.

I bore witness to this culinary phenomenon earlier this week at my pal Claire's West Village home. Arriving for dinner, I met her parents, who had come to call from Yorkshire, England. Lucky for me, besides bringing the usual parental glad tidings, Claire's "Mum" had brought along her all-time favorite recipe for Lamb Roast with Potatoes and Onions.

Pictured above, this was a marvel of a dinner. The lamb was so tender that it fell off the bone with the gentle touch of a fork. The potatoes were a toasty deep brown, crisp and soft all at once, and the roast onions were caramelized and addictive.

Still, I had to wonder if the meal would have been quite as comforting if I hadn't been sitting next to the beaming "Mum" chef who served us with such pride and pleasure.

After giving it a bit of thought, I concluded that the answer on that score has to be "nope." It was "Mum's" presence, her unmitigated motherly joy in preparing and serving the dinner that gave it a maternal je ne sais qua that took a very good meal into the marvelous zone.

That said, if anyone has similar tales to share when it comes to Dad-made fare, I'd love to hear about it. Equal-opportunity parental cooking fans, it is your time to shout out!

Eating Rabbit

Some might think it sacrilege to discuss eating rabbit when the Easter Bunny is coming to town, but not me. I hate Peeps and Cadbury Chocolate Eggs. Rabbit on the other hand...Yum!

Admittedly, I've never cooked one, but when given the choice of "pets or meat" in the infamous scene in "Roger & Me," analogy to GM's treatment of its workers aside, I'm a carnivore all the way. And, when presented with dishes like the succulent Rabbit and Dumplings (pictured above) from New Orleans' Cochon, I am utterly convinced that bunnies taste good. Real good.

Sealing the deal, tonight I'm headed to my pal Chad's home for Easter supper. The entree? A Glazed Ham? Roasted Leg of Lamb? I think not! It'll be Braised Rabbit, of course!

So, let the Easter Bunny hop along leaving Jelly Beans and Chocolates in his wake. I just want to make sure that at some point he hops into a pot on Chad's stove.

Happy Easter!

Cinnamon Goes Savory

A couple of teaspoons of cinnamon in your Apple Pie recipe? Of course. A heaping tablespoon of cinnamon for Snickerdoodles? Absolutely!

But cinnamon with chicken? With eggplant? Not so much...Unless you know better. Unless you know the wonders of this fragrant spice when applied with a Greek culinary sense of savory.

Take for example, Mama Vamp's recipe for Pastitsio -- the Greek version of lasagna that pairs a tomato and cinnamon-imbued stew of ground lamb and beef with tubes of pasta and a blanket of sharp grated cheese. Once layered, it goes into the oven to bake, crowned with an eggy, rich bechamel scented with nutmeg.

Don't resist. The recipe is below. Time to break out the cinnamon for more than Rice Pudding and Coffee Cake. Go grab a stick or two of the stuff and get your Greek on!

Pastitsio

2 onions, finely diced
1/2 cup butter
1 lb ground chuck
1 lb ground lamb
2 1/4 cups tomato sauce
2 teaspoons salt
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 sticks of cinnamon
16 oz. box of ziti
1 1/2 cups Locatelli Romano cheese, grated

Saute onions in butter until golden. Add meat and saute until browned. Add tomato sauce, salt, garlic and sticks of cinnamon. Simmer for 30 minutes. Allow to cool and refrigerate overnight. Remove any hardened grease that has settled on the top and warm gently on the stove top. Cook ziti per package instructions, strain and rinse. Place a layer of the stewed meat at the bottom of a 13x9x2 baking pan. Alternately layer ziti with more sauce and cheese. Make bechamel.

Bechamel
6 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup flour
3 cups milk
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup Locatelli Romano cheese, grated
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
salt and pepper, to taste

Melt butter in a large saucepan. Stir in flour and then slowly stir in milk. Cook until thickened. Add salt, pepper and nutmeg. Add cheese. After adding a bit to the yolks to temper them, stir entire mixture into egg yolks.

Pour bechamel over meat and ziti. Bake for 40 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Serve.

When Is A Pizza Greater Than The Sum Of Its Slices?

That's a simple question. It's when said pizza is worthy of a major schlepp. And, furthermore, worthy of a long-ass wait after said schlepp.

Not may pizzas hold these virtues, but I was lucky enough to encounter one last week.

It was a square pie, with a charred, almost caramelized crust, slick with good olive oil. It was topped with a heavenly combination of vibrant, red tomato sauce, rich mozzarella, snippets of fresh basil, a drizzle of more olive oil, and a shower of sharp parmesan.

It was in Brooklyn, in the heart of Hasidic Midwood. It was Di Fara. And, without being Kosher, it was a wholly religious experience.

Needless to say, amen. And, when is someone going to offer to rent a Zipcar to take me there again?

Revisiting Mama Vamp's Recipe Box

Certain dishes remain with me from my childhood and teenage years. For the most part, those dishes sprung from Mama Vamp's recipe box, and lately I've been reminiscing about those recipes -- longing to revisit them in my own kitchen.

A couple of years ago, a forgotten recipe from Mama Vamp's vault was finally located and several luscious Plum Cakes have been lovingly baked in my home ever since.

Recently, after paying call on a Brighton Beach bakery chock-full of freshly-made Rugelach, I've been feeling the need to break out Mama Vamp's own recipe, whipping up a batch filled with apricot jam and toasted walnuts. I'm equally drawn to her recipe for Cheesecake, a hauntingly rich version that combines cream cheese and whipped cream with flecks of bright orange and lemon zests.

On the savory side, I conjure up memories of her Greek Pastitsio, baked pasta in a hearty tomato-meat sauce tinged with cinnamon, and topped with a creamy bechamel.

Yup. Thinking it's about time to dig up some of Mama Vamp's old favorites on well-worn index cards and head to my kitchen. Anyone care to come over to sample the results?

Fried Chicken, Donuts & Renoir

It was a good weekend. It was a very good weekend. Late Friday, I stepped off the train at Philadelphia's 30th Street Station, grabbed Mama Vamp and headed straight to the Center City outpost of Federal Donuts. The place isn't much to look at: a few seats, a counter with a friendly cashier and a couple of guys manning a couple of fryers. But, oh, that chicken.

My pick, pictured above, was a half order of Fried Chicken dipped in a honey-ginger glaze. Each piece was beautifully moist with a shatteringly crisp crust and glossing of sweet honey with a light gingery kick. I like to think the wee side of Japanese pickles could count as a vegetable to off-set the decadence that was the chicken. But, even if that was the case, there was the still-warm-from-the-fryer Honey Donut for dessert. All I can say is, hot damn, that donut was good.

And after being sated in such a fashion, how could Mama Vamp and I do anything else, but go take in one of the world's most lauded collections of impressionist paintings? We made sure to grab wet naps and wipe our greasy fingers thoroughly before hitting the Barnes Foundation, where we ogled luscious Renoirs by the dozen, not to mention breathtaking works by Van Gogh, Matisse, Cezanne, Degas, Cassatt, Gaugin and more. Post-impressionist and modern art also shared the spotlight, along with African sculpture, Pennsylvania-Dutch decorative arts and Native American textiles and metalwork.

I found myself needing to stop in-between the galleries for a "palate-cleanser" for my eyes. Stopping in a hallway or two for a breather isn't exactly the visual equivalent to a bracing sorbet course, but it did the trick.

Fried chicken, donuts and the Barnes. The new ultimate Philly trifecta! Just make sure to have a wet nap or two on hand.

Got A Cookbook For That?

Do you like Deviled Eggs? Me too. Do you like them enough to need an entire cookbook devoted to the topic?

Have an urge to bake with almond flour? I have a cookbook for you!

How about corn? Who doesn't enjoy a butter-slathered piece of corn-on-the-cob? Maybe you want a whole cookbook dedicated to the gorgeous yellow-kerneled beauties?

You an avid "Downton Abbey" fan? Think you might need a cookbook that makes you believe that you've swiped Mrs. Patmore's secret recipe box.

My next cookbook purchase? Not sure, but somehow I keep leaning towards tomes that are from chefs that I respect and admire. That said, glad to know that if I ever have an urge to cook with cannibas (when visiting Seattle or Denver, of course), that there is indeed a cookbook for that.

The Ultimate Cure For All That Ails You

That's right folks. Soup. In all of its glorious forms. Above is a bowl of slurp-worthy Oxtail Soup with Hand-Pulled Noodles from Lan Zhou Noodle House, situated on a well-worn block of East Broadway in Manhattan's Chinatown.

A bit more upscale, but deeply restorative just the same, was an order of the namesake soup at Ganso in Brooklyn, a heaping bowl of classic soy sauce broth, slow-braised pork shoulder and pork belly, ajitama egg and seasonal greens, shimmering like jewels over a tangle of ramen noodles.

Then there was a soul-satisfying cup of Mushroom Barley Soup at my local Eastern European diner. A necessary cup on a damp day.

And tonight, I expect to be be serving up warming portions of a tongue-tingling Chicken and Andouille Sausage Gumbo, straight from my kitchen. This is the kind of homemade soup that can cure all ills.

We'll see if it's enough to ward off this horrible flu that's been going around. But, just in case, I'll be getting a flu shot tomorrow. (And, I might get another dose of soup too!)

Birthday Wishes: My Italian Grandma in Staten Island

This birthday a long-held dream of mine finally came true. After years and years, I finally acquired an honest-to-goodness Nonna, an Italian grandmother who knew how to speak Italiano and cook with wild abbondonza abandon.

Dear friends gave me this remarkable gift by joining me on the Staten Island Ferry for a celebration at a wonderful small restaurant named Enoteca Maria. What makes it particularly wonderful isn't a lady named Maria. No, in fact, what makes this restaurant completely unique is its rotating collection of real Italian grandmas that man the kitchen, devising an every-changing set of menus that feature regional family recipes passed down from Nonna to Nonna.

My Nonna was from the Northern Italian town of Bergamo and that night's menu reflected her Lombardy leanings. We went with it, ordering up dish after dish of delights, from a garlicky good Stuffed Artichoke to a rich rendition of Baked Eggplant and Tomato, and a tongue-tingling platter of Seared Hot Peppers with Anchovies to a melt-in-your-mouth sunny yellow Butternut Squash Risotto. Pictured above, the risotto was made even more delicious by a sprinkling of fragrant green sage leaves and shaved Parmesan Reggiano.

And did I mention the incredible homemade Focaccia? Or how about the night's riff on nose-to-tail dining?

That's right. My Nonna took head-to-tuchis quite literally as we tucked into a Split Roasted Sheep's Head crusted with herbs, garlic and breadcrumbs. That was followed by a dish of Roasted Veal Tails with Peas and Lemon that was luxuriously tender and utterly irresistible.

My good friend Max -- who snapped these gorgeous photos -- was so taken with the tails that he ended up including it in his Serious Eats New York list of his best NYC bites of the year. No surprise, it is one of mine as well.