By CS Hsia, on May 15th, 2013 The website for Cherrywood Kitchen features prominently the words “Cherrywood Kitchen by Chef Chris Cheung”.
We’ve certainly come a long way. There once was a time when eaters discriminated at chefs with unforgiving stereotypes. Sushi chefs need to be Japanese, Italian chefs from Italy, etc. The assumption was that chefs that were not of the proper ethnicity lacked understanding or respect for the cuisine, thus am unable to create the intricate flavors. That might have been the case then, but today aspiring young chefs spend years training their craft in various ethnic cuisines, so it’s not uncommon to see a master sushi chef from China as in the case at Neta.
 Cherrywood in Soho New American cooking, though, is harder to define. If traditional American cooking evokes the image of burgers, steaks and fries, New American cuisine is…. just about everything else, with hints of just about every other cuisine. The flavor profile however is still decidedly from the western hemisphere.
With a resume that includes stints at Jean-Georges and Nobu, chef Cheung had the necessary training to carve out his own interpretation of New American. The concept of the restaurant is quite generic (by modern day NY standards): Fresh local produce, seasonal ingredients, etc. The unifying element is the cherrywood, which is used to smoke many ingredients in house, and is the dominating color and texture in the restaurant.
Continue reading Cherrywood Kitchen – Broadstroke New American
By jessie, on May 6th, 2013 With the strangely alluring neon sign that reads “BAR”, Alewife is my perfect fit for Long Island City in its current stage of evolution. The place is peppered with remnants of shady, but overwhelmingly, it is its undeniably bougie self. With that said, you’ll have to seat yourself. The freedom of choice allows you the lower level, second level and, of course, New York’s requisite outdoors option
 Alewife, bar and restaurant. On your way up, if you chose to enjoy the spring summer vibes outsides like we did, you’ll notice the tap options are extensive. Alewife also does a variety of events, with tap takeovers and day-of-the-week deals–so keep vigilant!
 Take a cocktail and sit on the patio. Beers aside, cocktails are another good place to start. Once we waded through the whimsical nomenclature (Zeus was framed!), we started with a dozen blue points ($22/12), with a nice homemade sauce. Well shucked!
 A dozen well shucked Blue Points. We then marched onward to brunch, with a hollandaise burger. Walking in, I had already eyed this open faced burger on a number of tables, with hollandaise oozing unabashedly. Matched with a true medium-rare treatment and garlic fries, no happier brunch was had.
 Open faced Benedict burger. Steak frites, another brunch time staple for those preferring beef in its un-ground state, was nicely seared and had good flavor. If I must nitpick this lunch time meat, I would have preferred if the flap steak came sliced, it’s simply not an visually pleasing cut of beef.
 Steak frites. Had we not come so late in the day, there would be no blog post at all. I’d have blacked out with their $25 all-you-can drink brunch deal and let the lucky dogs find this place on their own. But I didn’t – and will most certainly indulge on a different sunny Sunday.
Chow on,
Jessie
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Alewife NYC
514 51st Ave
Long Island City, NY 11101
(718) 937-7494
http://www.alewifequeens.wordpress.com/
By jessie, on April 23rd, 2013 Tasked with finding a eatery in Tribeca to discuss business prospects on one of our budding schemes, there was no place more suitably named than Macao Trading Company. An unassuming bar/restaurant combination, it is the noisier neighbor to Morimoto’s eerily quiet Canvas. In hopes of keeping a clear head–and because our business conspirators ordered no drinks themselves–I can only recount to you all the visual appeal of the bar and its offerings. Let us live vicariously through you no?
The prospect of food however, was exciting enough. Having blitzed through the real Macao en route to Shenzhen, there was some mental salivating when I opened up the menu…only to find.
No pork (chop) buns.
 Steamed dumplings…. Some ambiguously labeled grilled bacon buns was available, but did the Portuguese occupation yield nothing?
 Potato wedge fries. I recovered in stride and shot off a quick order of Charred Octopus Escabeche. It was properly charred, with still a hint of natural chewiness. Two tentacles was not enough to satisfy the hole left by absent buns. So we tried again, with orders of African chicken and steam Chaozhou hake.
 Charred octopus. The chicken was grilled well, and the entire thing was sweet, creamy and satisfying with the red coconut gravy atop. The impressive mound of cole slaw could have been more jazzed up, as it laid there forgotten once our conversation kicked up.
 A beautiful piece of steamed hake. The Chaozhou hake was definitely a proper steamed texture, but given the nature of the fish, it would perhaps have been difficult to produce it otherwise. It tasted fresh, with some hints of the flavored vegetables to season each constructed bite. Nothing outlandish about it, but Hake was an excellent choice and it was executed soundly.
While the Portuguese feeling came across resoundingly in the African Chicken (some Moorish influences plus a coconut dressing is potentially sourced from Goa, a fellow colony), I had in my mind that pork buns would be the order of the day, but perhaps that is only because my own excursion in Macao. The flavors were sound, and just sidestepped hackneyed–with some drinks I imagine it would really all come together.
But like I mentioned, I can only imagine.
Chow on,
Jessie
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Macao Trading Co.
311 Church St
New York, NY 10013
(212) 431-8750
http://www.macaonyc.com/
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