Caribbean Cooking Class at ICE

Institute of Culinary Education
50 West 23rd St, NY NY 10010
212-847-0700

So I would think most people who are interested in food and flavors in NYC have heard of or know someone who has taken a class at the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE). So I thought it might be worth an entry here, though it is certainly not a restaurant, it is a unique flavor of NYC. Friends of ours (thanks Susanne!) recommended we all take a class together sometime, and I quickly realized that these classes sell out faster than rock concerts, despite the fact that this is apparently the largest offering of recreational cooking classes in the country! We debated which class to take, with it must be hundreds of offerings (check out https://web.iceculinary.com/icereg/index.asp, the recent listing just came out--perhaps there are still some seats left!!), everything from "Basic Knife Skills" to "Essentials of Tuscan Cooking" to "Chocolate Galore." Yum! How to choose...and the classes are not cheap, so unfortunately we couldn't sign up for everything!

Eventually we decided upon a Caribbean cooking class that sounded like it had a lot of great flavors. It was a Saturday night event, 6-10pm, and we got to work hard for our meal, and then sit down and enjoy a fabulous spread in our exhausted state. We worked in groups of 4-5, and together each team made all of the following: Jerked Pulled Pork (the highlight); Shrimp Creole; Cane Glazed Chicken; Spicy Pumpkin Puree; Yucca Frites; & Avocado & Watercress salad. At first it was a little stressful, as we wondered how we'd get it all done, and felt initially like we were on a timed "Iron Chef" or "Next Food Network Star" show. And this class in particular certainly assumed a basic level of cooking knowledge; which was fine for us, but I wouldn't recommend it for people who are entirely new to cooking. Eventually we realized we were actually fairly ahead of the other teams and we calmed down and enjoyed the rest of the evening.

EVERY dish that we made was delicious, it really was. I was in love with the jerk seasoning and can't wait to make more of it and use it on all sorts of things. The pumpkin was a lot of work but de-lish, and shrimp creole was great. They served wine to everyone with dinner, and even whipped out some haagen dazs ice cream for the group for dessert.

We have our ingredient-stained recipe pages to prove what we accomplished, and are looking forward to trying some of these at home. Can't wait to see what else we can learn, if there are any free seats left at ICE.

Sushi in the Slope

Oshima sushi
71 7th Ave, Park Slope, Brooklyn 11217
At Berkeley Pl
718-783-1888

We've relied on Oshima as our go-to sushi delivery in the Slope for over a year now, and we finally decided to get ourselves up there in person. Oshima is up north on 7th Ave, at Berkeley Place. Inside it has wooden panelling and appears to be a typical sushi place, cozy enough. There is a bar to sit and watch the sushi chefs which is always fun. We ended up outside as it was a nice day, in the back garden, with the ivy growing along all of the surrounding buildings. The service was great, and the sushi was tasty as always, so we'll have to remember to come back if/when we want real live sushi outside of our own apartment.

Our staples for ordering are the spicy roll special plus the sunset roll, which is basically a california roll with salmon & avocado on top. Always nice presentation too.

This time we decided we should mix it up a bit. We tried the shrimp gyoza special appetizer which was AMAZING, as was the sauce, wish those were on offer every day!
We tried a special that was different--salmon, coriander, & jalepeno....very unique; now coriander is my favorite herb for sure, but all in all I probably wouldn't order that one again, a bit too bizarre. Also tried the "Fire dragon" with eel and avocado, plus spicy tuna on top of it, which was ok but not as great as the sunset roll favorite.

Overall the quality of sushi at Oshima always makes my tummy happy, but will probably go less into the strange mix-it-up adventure rolls, and stick to my favs which are generally salmon/avocado, tuna, and california, with some eel avocado thrown in for good measure.

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F Train to Totonno's

Totonno's

1524 Neptune Ave.
Coney Island, Brooklyn, NY
718.372.8606

Keeping up the pizza trend lately, we decided to try out another popular pizza place this weekend, which involved a small journey out to none other than Coney Island-- Totonno Pizzeria, a staple of Coney Island since the 1920's.

This place was very reminiscent of Grimaldi's I must say, with a small, simple interior, the coal pizza oven in the back working away, the two glass windows out front and reviews and pizza/food ratings stickers all over (even the "no slices" standard sign). Also like Grimaldi's, you wait outside in a long line for the opportunity to wait some more inside for the famous pies.

Totonno's is in the opposite direction as the beach from Coney Island/Stillwell Ave subway stop, so at first it feels like you are walking to who-knows-where, but then you see the line outside. We waited 30-40 minutes or so, and then happily sat down, ordered our one pie & 2 cokes and waited another 15 min or so, reading all of the old reviews and news articles posted on the walls. Relatively run-down interior, but was expected. Eventually our pizza came out steaming hot on a big silver tray, and needless to say we were quite starved, so could hardly wait for it to cool down.

It was a decent size, for $16 or so, and like Grimaldi's and the big pie we had at Pino's, it had slices of fresh mozzarella and a fresh crust and tasty tomato sauce, all charred in the coal oven. It was warm and comforting and delicious, for sure. I would have liked some basil on top, like Pino's, and a few bites seemed a bit too charred, but it hit the spot.

It was the first visit to Coney Island, and we took a ride on the Wonder Wheel to check the place out from above. Was a beautiful day so nice to relax a bit on the beach as well. Otherwise about what we expected, nothing to draw us out there very frequently but amusing to see. And no, no Nathan's hot dogs on this visit, despite my love for flavors, hot dogs isn't really one of my faves! Plus the lines were a bit extreme.

Pizza flavors!

Pino's la Forchetta
181 7th Ave, Btwn 1st & 2nd
Park Slope, Brooklyn
718-965-40
Recent discussions with visiting family about good local pizza have inspired me to expand my pizza horizons a bit and continue to sample those renowned pizza places! Looking for a new place to get delivery from in Park Slope, we read about Pinos online and decided to try it out. We got delivery a few weeks ago, and this week stopped in for a slice in person.

We've stuck with traditional pizza pies for the most part, ordering fresh mozzarella for delivery and plain cheese slices in person. The fresh mozzarella is more similar to the Grimaldi's style with the slices of mozz spread out and less overall gooey cheese. The plain cheese slices were very comparable to our staple slices from Smiling Pizza on 9th/7th that I really love, and much cheaper than fresh mozzarella. The large mozzarella pizza was $18, much more of an investment for a pizza than a plain large cheese. BUT it is quite tasty. I am definitely a fan.

The crust tastes fresh, no floppy mushy crusts like Anthony's here, and the ends are a bit thicker/breadier than some (yes I made up the word breadier); the sauce was tasty and I loved the fresh basil scattered on the top. It is pretty big so I guess that's part of the $18 price-tag.

The atmosphere isn't memorable in terms of going in-person, so I think I'll stick with take out or delivery (very neon-lights, felt like the type of place only worth stopping in on later drunken nights or something). But I'll keep Pinos on my speed-dial list for delivery for sure!