However, for the people I'm not Facebook friends with, this was hands-down the most amazing meal I had in the city that week and also representative of my NEW FAVORITE RESTAURANT: Mission Chinese Food at 154 Orchard St in the Lower East Side.
Picture here is the Beef Heart & Hokkaido Scallop Sashimi (sublime), the ridiculously popular Thrice-Cooked Bacon (ooh, spicy!), and some rye-based cocktail with a name riffing on Twin Peaks. I assume that's what I had to drink. They don't list their cocktail menu on the internet.
In other food related ventures over the course of the handful of days I spent in NYC, I ate at Acme, Fatty Crab, M Wells, Hide-Chan Ramen, Tacos Matamoros, and Crif Dogs. I sipped a few cocktails at PDT and a soju slushie and Momofuku Noodle Bar. Also drinks at less notable bars.
Anyway, the entry on a recipe from Cook's Illustrated Summer Grilling 2010 issue.
Chicken and Brine
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup table salt [I don't really believe in plain-Jane iodized salt. I know that kosher salt is not at all a one-to-one swap with table salt, but I use it anyway in brines.]
- 4 split bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts, about 12 ounces each
- Disposable aluminum roasting pan
Dipping Sauce
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup distilled white vinegar
- 1/4 cup juice from 2 limes
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
- 3 small garlic cloves, minced or pressed through garlic press (1 1/2 teaspoons)
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 2/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
- 1/4 cup juice from 2 to 3 limes
- 12 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed through garlic press (about 1/4 cup)
- 2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
- 2 tablespoons ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons ground coriander
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, plus more for cooking grate.
Brand new grill, brand new chimney starter, and natural hardwood charcoal briquettes.
Sorry, folks, starter fluid and gas grills are for sissies.
The dipping sauce resembles the condiment my parents perpetually make and have on hand in the fridge. Except instead of red pepper flakes, they use fresh Thai chiles.
I had my parents take home a piece of each part of the resulting food I made, but I figured they didn't have to take any of this sauce home with them.
The rub involved a stupid amount of prep. I'm really not sure how long exactly it took me to microplane all that garlic, but it was a long-ass time on top of everything else. Plus I was grill-roasting sweet potatoes in the meantime which meant I dash up and down two flights of stairs every 15 minutes. Christ, what a pain in the ass.
A modified two-level fire means that the coals are banked to one half of the grill. The chicken's first browned on the hot side and ideally left to finish cooking on the cooler side.
The retarded amount of prep and the fact that I had pretty much completely cooked the sweet potatoes by the time I was ready to grill the chicken and also that I have a baby rather than full-size Weber means I was eventually tempted to cook shit on the "hot" side (the coals being pretty spent). Even taking this short cut, it took much longer than stated in the recipe to get the breasts to register 160 degrees.
The retarded amount of prep and the fact that I had pretty much completely cooked the sweet potatoes by the time I was ready to grill the chicken and also that I have a baby rather than full-size Weber means I was eventually tempted to cook shit on the "hot" side (the coals being pretty spent). Even taking this short cut, it took much longer than stated in the recipe to get the breasts to register 160 degrees.
I ate this and subsequent leftovers using only my hands. So primal.
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