Breakfast | A Good Dish

The Great Northern Food Hall: A Reason to Head for Grand Central Station

October 19, 2016

Great Northern Food Hall in the western half of Vanderbilt Hall at Grand Central Station — Great Northern Food Hall in the western half of Vanderbilt Hall
at Grand Central Station

It used to be that if you were catching a train at Grand Central Station and needed something to eat, you could grab a bagel at Zaro’s, some nuts at Hudson News or hunker down for a meal at the Oyster Bar. In recent years, the lower level food court has been upgraded and improved but I wouldn’t eat there by choice. The high- end marketplace on the Lexington Avenue side of the station, anchored by Eli Zabar’s and including a nut shop, fish market, coffee shop, flowers, cheese and charcuterie is well stocked but it is quite pricey. I would buy bread or a gift there but nothing else really beckons to me.

The Grain Bar on one side of the Great Northern Food Hall serving morning porridges and full meals later in the day — The Grain Bar on one side of the Great Northern Food Hall
serving morning porridges and full meals later in the day

I’m happy to report there are new grab and go and dine-in options in Grand Central. Claus Meyer, the Danish restaurateur who opened a chain of bakeries and Noma (voted best restaurant for several years running) in Copenhagen, recently turned his culinary talents to bringing Scandinavian food to New York. Starting with a pop-up patisserie, now brick and mortar, and a coffee roaster in Brooklyn, he has now tackled Manhattan. Lucky for us, he opened the Great Nordic Food Hall this summer in half of Vanderbilt Hall, the old Grand Central waiting room on 42nd Street, a bakery and deli near the IRT subway, a “hot dog” (really sausage) kiosk, and Agern, a high end restaurant focusing on local and seasonal food and drink, which I haven’t tried yet but hope to find an occasion to do so.

Havarti Sandwich ($3.50) at the Great Northern Food Hall and the Great Northern Deli — Havarti Sandwich ($3.50) at the Great Northern Food Hall
and the Great Northern Deli

Since finding the Meyer Bageri (the bakery) at the Great Northern Deli, I have detoured whenever in the neighborhood or taking the train or the shuttle (just down the hall) to buy a sourdough or whole grain rye bread and, full disclosure, the raspberry bars – they are heavenly! Full of freshly made raspberry filling and sweet, buttery pastry, they are a reason to take the train. After sampling the delectable almond poppyseed twist and flaky, creamy maple pecan Danish, I didn’t dare try their gluten-free valrhona chocolate brownies but they look fantastic. The deli also sells sandwiches, drinks, bags of granola, cookbooks and gift items, in case you forgot a little something, either as a hostess gift or to eat while waiting for or riding a train.

Grab coffee, sandwiches, salads, bread, pastry and all kinds of food gifts at the Great Northern Deli off the hallway near the S shuttle to Times Square — Grab coffee, sandwiches, salads, bread, pastry and all kinds of food gifts
at the Great Northern Deli near the S shuttle to Times Square

Hindbaersnitte (what Meyers Bageri calls a Danish pop tart with raspberry)

Next door to the deli is the diminutive but well designed and very tasty Danish Dogs. These are not traditional hot dogs but for $8 you have a choice of 4 kinds of sausage on an in-house made hot dog bun with abundant and interesting toppings including lingonberries, beet remoulade, cucumber salad, sorrel leaves and fried onions. Just remembering the delicious chicken sausage assemblage I ate there makes me want to return in a hurry! Until 10:30 every morning (when it is really too early to be seen eating a hot dog), this counter serves made to order $7 omelet sandwiches.

$8 Sausage Sandwiches at the Danish Dogs Kiosk

The food hall is appealingly spare, in neutral tones with a calm vibe (remarkable considering its setting) and includes a bar, coffee counter and kiosks for sandwiches (both open face Danish style smorrebrod and regular) and baked goods. There are plenty of tables for eating what you purchase as well as a sit-down, full service cafe for salads and hot food. Over the summer, my husband and I tried several sandwiches, drinks and desserts – all were excellent, including the coffee (from Meyer’s Brownsville Roasters.) Our favorite was the celeriac sandwich (thinly sliced celery root, green apple and walnut ($10) on a flavorful in-house made whole grain “hoagie” and the above mentioned hindbaersnitte, the raspberry bar so good my mouth waters just thinking about it.

The philosophy behind the food hall is as attractive as the food displays. The lowest paid employees start at the living wage of $15/hour with benefits – what other casual dining arena in New York can say that? Food is actually locally sourced and well raised, there is a feeling of quality over quantity, and although it is busy, the food hall is a pleasant place to sit and have a coffee, lunch or drink at the bar. It is not that the food is less expensive than what I could find in the downstairs food court. It’s just that it is so much more appealing on so many levels. Instead of just grabbing the least “bad” thing I could find while running for a train, the Nordic Food Hall is a place at which I will plan to eat often and intentionally.

Smorrebrod (open face sandwiches) at Great Northern Food Hall — Smorrebrod (open face sandwiches)
at Great Northern Food Hall

Surprisingly Tasty Fruit In Any Season

May 15, 2016

apricots, cherries, pineapple and lemons

Spring is lovely for many reasons – fresh breezes, blooming flowers, fresh green vegetables. But it isn’t a season of much locally fresh fruit, at least not here in the northeast. Apples and pears have been in cold storage so long they really aren’t crisp anymore and it is even nearing the end of citrus season. Sure we can get kiwi from Italy and pineapple from Costa Rica but until local strawberries come into their own, our fruit is being shipped in from far away. I’m not sure if rhubarb counts – I think it is a vegetable and requires large amounts of sugar to taste good.

For smoothies or baking, frozen fruit can be a good solution, available year round and fine for blending or muffins. But for a more substantial breakfast serving or for dessert, I recommend cooking dried fruit – easier and more delicious than you might guess if you haven’t tried it. Basically all you do is add water or juice and spices, boil, simmer and soak for a few hours or overnight. The name “stewed fruit” may conjure up elderly, apron-clad grannies trying to regulate their systems but these homemade apricots, cherries and pineapple are not your grandmother’s jar of sugary prunes. Don’t let your misconceptions about “stewed” fruit get in your way. Let’s call it simmered fruit, since stewed implies long cooking under a lid and this isn’t, and change its image.

driedfruit

Organic, or at least non-sulfate, dried fruit is pretty easy to find in stores and re-hydrates into a tasty, old-fashioned kind of dessert. Choose from unsweetened plums (a/k/a prunes), peaches, pears, apricots, apples, raisins, pineapple, cherries or berries. I use lots of sliced lemons (I tried lime but it was too tart – if you use it, add some honey or maple syrup) or oranges plus cinnamon and ginger but you could use cardamom, nutmeg, a piece of vanilla bean, allspice, even some lemongrass. A little citrus zest or tiny shake of cayenne before serving helps add zing. Simmered fruit becomes thicker and more flavorful when it sits for a day so it is best made ahead. As a bonus, it keeps well for several days in the refrigerator so you can use it more than once.

Simmered apricots and lemons with whipped cream and almonds

Simmered fruit, by itself, is a satisfying dessert but you can gussy it up by adding whipped cream, liquor (a splash of brandy, creme de cassis or ruby port might be good) and nuts or serve it over ice cream or yogurt or even lady fingers or pound cake. I’ve read that some people like it on hot cereal, waffles and pancakes – could be good. I’ve been out of new breakfast ideas lately so I tried some simmered apricots and prunes with lemons, oranges and cinnamon on plain yogurt and topped it with walnuts, almonds and chia seeds. It was more delicious than I expected! Plate your simmered fruit in a pretty compote dish or ice cream bowl with a cookie alongside it and no one will complain you didn’t bake.

SIMMERED FRUIT

In a small saucepan, place 2-3 cups (or big handfuls) of dried fruit of your choosing. For an example, let us say 1 cup each of prunes, apricots and cherries. Add 1-2 pieces of cinnamon sticks, 1 thinly sliced lemon, a few thin slices of a navel orange, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp ginger powder, 1/4 tsp cardamom powder, a shake of cayenne and water to cover it all by an inch. If you want it to be very sweet, substitute orange or apple juice for some of the water. Bring to a boil and then lower to a simmer and cook for half an hour. Let sit in the pot until cool and the liquid has thickened and then put in a glass jar and refrigerate until ready to use.

Serve the fruit by itself topped with a little lemon or orange zest and a cookie or two or as a kind of sundae on top of ice cream with nuts and whipped cream or with plain yogurt and nuts and seeds for breakfast. Or reheat and serve over a piece of sponge or pound cake or lady fingers. I like it solo when I want a sweet that isn’t sugary. The serving size will depend on how you use it but about 1/2-3/4 cup is about right – a little goes a long way. It is tasty any time of year.

apricots, prunes, oranges, lemons, walnuts and chia seeds with yogurt

Searching for a Good New York Bagel

April 10, 2016

bagel1

Maybe it’s just me, but have you noticed that bagels have basically become doughy rolls with holes? The iconic bagel in my memory, and the one for which I am always searching, is moist (not dry) and takes a bit of effort to chew. The flavor is slightly sour but also sweet and the texture is DENSE. My mind’s eye bagel is smaller than the bagel boats out there now, perhaps 3-4 inches in diameter not the 4-5 you get now and certainly not 2 inches high. Growing up, we mostly had water (plain) bagels and they were enormously satisfying and toothsome. As I got older, my preference shifted to a pumpernickel or multi-grain for the full flavor, texture and density. Looking back, perhaps it was a self-deception; I assumed the whole grains made it a healthy (read not fattening) munch.

As a kid, I was introduced to bagels when visitors from New York would bring us a dozen. The grocery store in the north end of Hartford where my mother shopped occasionally sold bagels, but they were nothing special. When we heard about an actual bagel bakery opening in a neighboring suburb, my adventurous mother drove us over the mountain to a strip mall in Avon to buy a dozen. There we first experienced the warm-from- the-oven bagel – glorious! Eventually our town got its own branch of a bagel chain and we had to settle for convenient over delicious.

Over the years, bagels started to get bigger and airier. I credit (or blame) H & H, the NYC institution whose outpost on the upper west side was where generations of kids grabbed breakfast or an afternoon snack and upper west siders stocked up for Sunday brunch. But, like the growth of restaurant portions and fast food drink servings, their bagels grew larger and larger until they were the size of a kaiser roll. And with size we lost density and chew.

bagel2

Bagels used to be a bargain bite. My father-in-law loved West Side Market’s frugal 5 for a dollar (most recently 3 for $2) and just a few years ago, we could to buy a dozen with 3 free for $8 at Lenny’s on 98th street. Now bagels are $1 a piece and you get the classic baker’s dozen – one free when you buy 12. Lenny’s was home to our favorite variety, the “New Horizon”, a rye and whole grain mix with flax seeds and raisins. It was scrumptious, especially toasted. But nothing lasts forever: Their wonderfully dense, hand rolled original gave way to an airy, machine-made version when they got new equipment a year or two ago. It still has a pleasant, even if milder, flavor but no more chewy texture. So, so sad for us. People seem to love Absolute Bagels, up near Columbia: there is often a line out the door on weekends. Their bagels are fairly tasty with a decent chew, especially the whole wheat sesame, but they are still quite rotund. They do make a few varieties, including plain, in a mini size, perfect for kids and the less voracious among us. Zabar’s offers one of the best tasting and moistest bagels in the city for 95 cents but it is pretty zaftig, as well.

On a recent trip to Montreal’s Mile End neighborhood, we sampled bagels from the 2 famously competing bagel bakeries – Fairmount and St Viateur. Both still hand roll their bagels and bake in wood fired ovens. Montreal bagels have shiny, sweetish crusts from being boiled in water with honey but are drier than the chewier New York style and, for my taste, need a little more salt.

But there is good news in New York. A hand rolling revival is underway! Bagels are rolled in many corners of Brooklyn and Queens, even in downtown Manhattan. Last week, I collected a variety of samples from highly rated bagel sellers all over the city and my husband, a friend and I conducted an unscientific tasting of plain bagels. Prices ranged from 67 cents to $2 apiece, thin to thick, small to huge. I am sorry to report that most were disappointingly dry, cardboardy and tasteless.

The runner up in the plain bagel category is from Zabar’s. It has good flavor, moist bite and a decent price. If you like a big bagel, this might be your favorite.

varieties at Zabar's — varieties at Zabar’s

Baking at Black Seed on Elizabeth Street

Our unanimous winner is from Black Seed Bagels, a lower east side bagelry (Elizabeth Street between Broome and Grand), where they hand roll and wood fire small, dense, delicious bagels, quite similar to Montreal style but moister and even tastier, even if $1.50 each. Their web page describes their product as a cross between Montreal and New York styles, a “love bagel” of sorts. They make good tasting plain and seeded varieties. My favorite is the flavorful rye – a killer toasted with butter.

Wood fired oven and bagel bath at Black Seed on First Avenue — Wood fired oven and bagel bath
at Black Seed on First Avenue

Black Seed recently opened another location in the former home of DeRobertis (a charming old Italian bakery where you could get wonderful pignoli and sfogliatelle but which recently went out of business) and is churning out terrific bagels, which they also sell at a kiosk in Hudson Eats at the World Financial Center.

And more good news – bagels left out over night in a paper bag were still soft enough to cut the next morning. We will happily make the trek downtown to stock up. Lets just hope they don’t lose their chew!

bagel by Black Seed plate by Margaret Bohls — bagel by Black Seed
plate by Margaret Bohls

(Note – if you go to the Black Seed on 1st Avenue, remember to stop at 2 venerable New York institutions around the corner on 11th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues – Russo’s Mozzarella and Pasta (est.1908) – wonderful cheese, taralli and sausage – and Veniero’s Bakery (est. 1894) – amazing Italian cheesecake).

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Easier Oatmeal

April 3, 2016

It may be spring, but daily temperatures seem to fluctuate wildly. When mornings are cold, I crave a hot breakfast. We all know that steel cut oats are good for us – nutritious, filling and full of fiber – but they can take too long to cook for a weekday breakfast. The solution is to soak them overnight. This is so simple and makes the morning cooking time about 5-7 minutes – too easy not to make them. A few additions make this a tasty breakfast.

EASY OVERNIGHT OATS oats2

Place in a small saucepan:

1 cup steel-cut oats

2 Tbs. whole flax seeds (optional)

1/4 cup raw sunflower seeds (optional)

Pinch salt

2 cups water (plus another 1/2 cup if using flax and sunflower seeds) or milk (if you want to substitute any kind of milk (nut, soy, coconut, cow) for the water, place the saucepan in the refrigerator until ready to cook).

Soak overnight.

In the morning, bring to a boil and then lower to a simmer, stirring often. If you prefer your porridge looser, add a little more water. Oats should soften and expand and be ready to eat in about 5-7 minutes. Makes 2-4 servings, depending on portion size.

To fortify: Add a little maple syrup or honey, chia and/or hemp seeds, chopped walnuts (or any nuts you like), raw or toasted pumpkin seeds, sliced or diced banana, chopped apple or pear, raisins or dried cranberries, a sprinkle of cinnamon, or whatever you prefer. My usual additions are a tablespoon of chia, a big handful of chopped walnuts, a 1/2 teaspoon of maple extract, a cut-up banana or berries (depending on what I have available) and a shake of cinnamon. Your breakfast, your choice.

oats

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