Gi & Jere

They are here!!! We are having SO much fun, we had lunch at Pastis, did ice skating in Central Park, went to Whole Foods and I even got a new Le Creuset Pan from them!


Oooooh... and they brought me a special taste from Berkeley, the super Love at First Bite cupcakes that I love so much! I'll write later more about our time together.

L'Ecole

Aqui em NY há uma super duper escola de culinária que se chama French Culinary Institute. Eu fui lá pra saber um pouco mais sobre os cursos deles e até fui convidada para uma demonstração de um super chef, Andre Soltner.

E hoje fomos jantar no [L'Ecole], o restaurante da escola. O lugar é até simples, uma decoração chique clean, todos os pratos sofisticadíssimos são preparados por alunos e posso dizer que foi uma das melhores refeições que fiz em New York, se não na vida. Sem contar que a mesa da janela no Soho é fantástica. Fica ai pra dar vontade aos leitores uma dica de um lugar não tão circuito turístico e imperdível.

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There is a super famous and well-known culinary school here in NY, the French Culinary Institute. I went there this week to know more about their programs and I was invited to a demo by Andre Soltner.

Today we had dinner at L'Ecole, the school's restaurant. It's amazing that all those super sophisticated and delicious dishes are made by students. I can sure say that it is on my top 5 restaurants in NY, if not in my whole life. The window table was super romantic and it's totally worth paying a visit to this 'not so touristic' restaurant.

fried eggplant

Boudin Blanc (white sausage) with Beluga Lentils and Sauce Diable

Escargot with Red Wine and Gruyère Cream

Lobster Consommé with Lobster Tortellini

Poached Halibut (fish), Potato Terrine and Spiced Chicken Consommé;
Tomato Soup and Garlic Bread in the back

Hanger Steak with Pommes Boulangere
Spaghetti Squash Terrine with Tomatoes and Creme Fraiche in the back

No pictures of 2 tiny digestive salads: arugula, parmiggiano reggiano cheese and pears sorbet. Too busy digesting.

Milk Chocolate Hazelnut Tart with Malt Ice Cream

Trio of Pot de Crème

Calma, não pedimos essa quantidade absurda de pratos, mas por eu ter pedido informações dos cursos, alguns pratos foram oferecidos pela casa, geralmente os que eu não lembrava muito bem os nomes. E o escargot, o primeiro e provavelmente último da minha vida, pois eu não ia fazer feio e deixar ali o prato que ganhamos.

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We didn't order so many dishes, but because I'm a prospective student, some things were complimentary, usually those that I'm not so sure about its description and the escargot. My first escargot, probably the last one too.

Releia!

Todo mundo sabe da importância de se reler o que se escreve. Outro dia fiquei inconformada, como uma pessoa conseguiu errar meu nome três vezes e ficava me chamando de Paul. Fala sério, acho até compreensível errar nomes em que a grafia varia entre Z e S, E e I e assim vai. Mas gente, eu assinei todas as vezes a minha forma feminina do substantivo próprio, mas a pessoa não lia. Até que eu falei "please, call me Paula".

Mas voltando ao tema, hoje vi uma chamada do Uol que me interessou. Nada de comida. "Labradora atua como mãe adotiva em reserva selvagem"


Ah, eu preciso ler! Cliquei no link, abri a página e li: "Uma cadela labradora de nove anos de idade vem garantindo o bem-estar de vários filhotes de animais selvagens há nove anos na África do Sul."

Me diz como isso é possível? A coitadinha era filhote e cuidava de tigres e leopardos? Ou será que ela está na fazenda há nove anos, mas é mais velhinha? Uma simples falta de atenção deixou passar essa frase meio sem pé nem cabeça e estragou meu espírito pra ler o resto do texto. Pode ser consequência do bode do primeiro parágrafo, mas eu achei o texto mal escrito. Se quiser [clique aqui], leia e me dê sua opinião. Mas não deixa de ser a coisa mais fofa essa dog com os tigrinhos, né?

Chocolaholic

I am chocolaholic. I can't survive a day without a tiny piece of chocolate and I don't remember when this addiction started. Chocolate is probably the only thing I can eat a horrendous amount and I won't have a stomachache, surprisingly conflicting with my sensitive belly. Just to give you an idea, I can finish a chocolate bar (170g/6oz) off by myself in a couple of minutes and crave for more.

There are some nice places here, some more popular than others. We all know that you can find Lindt and Godiva stores all around the city, but there are other sophisticated, exotic and fine chocolate stores. I've never been to [Max Brenner], just because I had forgotten about it, but it's marked as priority in my to do list. I love the [Jacques Torres] hot chocolate and cookies and [5th Avenue Chocolaterie] is also an extraordinary experience.


Today was a very unappropriated day to go for a walk as it was snowing a lot, but when it comes to chocolate I could almost face a Katrina coming in my direction. The snow did not defeated me and I made it to [Kee's Chocolates]. As you can read from her website, Kee was a very successful corporate woman that follow her passion for food and chocolates. She started to sell chocolates and flowers until the day Zagat rated her chocolates as the best they've ever had. No one before, and I believe no one has since reached a Quality Grade of 29 as she did.

Honey saffron, pistachio, passion fruit, creme brule, dark chocolate ad lavander

It was a nice surprise to find a tiny door from her Soho store. It is very modest and simple, but you can see all the fine ingredients and care she puts on her chocolates and it was a pity I didn't get to meet her. And no, I don't get free chocolates for writing about all these places. Unfortunately not.

Snow in London

We have a popular saying in Brasil that when it rains, it means that Saint Peter (São Pedro) is washing the floors of heaven and it all falls on the earth. So it seems Saint Peter and Murphy now are BFF (best friends forever) and decided to give us a hard time, as we're flying to London next week. I do hope this "biggest snowstorm in 18 years" melts fast and trains, subways, buses and people get back to work soon.