After tasting Chef Harold Dieterle’s pitch-perfect signature duck meatballs at his West Village eatery Perilla, I was hooked. While meatballs are the dish-of-the-moment, Dieterle’s stray from convention: piquant, tender duck balls paired with homemade mint and ricotta cavatelli in a rich, velvety broth.

The meatballs are fatty ground duck mixed with panko and seasoned with licorice-flavored Thai basil and given a tongue-titillating bite with Sriracha. The finished dish is crowned with a delicate, yet decadent raw quail egg, giving the meatballs and dumplings a satiny richness. Chef Dieterle conjures up flavor profile combinations I’ve never tasted- fruity and herbaceous, spicy hot, earthy and creamy. Flavor nuances unfurl with every bite.

The most difficult aspect of making this dish at home, for me, was rolling the dumplings. I do not have a cavatelli mold and it took more than several misguided attempts to find my groove. Once I was able to comfortably roll the cavatelli, each piece looked more perfect than the previous.

There are several versions of Harold Dieterle’s recipe available online. I skipped out on the water spinach he uses at Perilla, mostly because it was not included in the version of the recipe I used. Though I know the chef prefers to grind his own meat, I had my local butcher do it for me, rather than toiling away with my insufficient meat grinder.

Chef Dieterle recommends using duck stock for his meatballs. If duck stock is unavailable or you do not have time to make your own, use a reduced chicken stock. If all else fails, veal stock is a fine option. However, I went out on a limb and used a combination of brown chicken stock, duck stock and veal stock purchased at an artisanal butcher.

Artfully plated, the meatballs are nestled in a warm bowl with chewy-tender mint cavatelli, moistened by spicy, deeply rich broth. Sprinkled with creamy parmesan, a delicate quail egg perched demurely on top, this dish is concurrently rich, surprising and comforting.

Harold Dieterle’s Duck Meatballs with Mint Cavatelli
Mint Cavatelli:
1/3 cup fresh ricotta cheese
1 large egg
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons chopped mint
Olive oil

Duck Meatballs:
3 teaspoons olive oil
1 onion, very finely chopped
5 cloves garlic, very finely chopped
1 pound ground duck
1 tablespoon coarsely chopped basil
2 tablespoons chile sauce such as sriracha or sambal
1/4 cup panko
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
3 shallots, sliced crosswise
2 plum tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cup white wine
8 cups brown chicken stock, veal stock, duck stock or combination
8 sprigs fresh thyme
4 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces
4 teaspoons chopped mint
4 teaspoons chopped chives
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese, for serving
4 quail eggs

To make mint cavatelli:
1. In a large bowl, mix together ricotta and eggs; season with salt and pepper. Gradually sift in 3/4 cup flour. Add mint and knead mixture until a dough forms. Turn dough out onto work surface and knead a few more times until smooth; form dough into a ball, cover with plastic wrap, and let stand 30 minutes.
Sprinkle work surface with remaining 2 tablespoons flour. Turn dough out onto floured work surface and knead flour into dough. Roll out dough until it is 1/4 inch thick. Using a sharp knife, cut dough into 1-inch-wide strips. Run dough through a cavatelli maker or cut each strip into 1-by-1/2-inch pieces.

2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Generously salt boiling water and return to a boil. Add cavatelli to boiling water and cook until tender and floats to the surface, about 1 1/2 minutes. Drain and transfer cavatelli to a baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and let cool.

To make duck meatballs:
1. Heat 1 teaspoon olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and 3 cloves garlic. Cook, stirring, until translucent, about 5 minutes; remove from heat and let cool.

2. Add onion and garlic mixture to a large bowl, along with, ground duck, basil, chile sauce, panko, and eggs. Knead mixture until well combined; season with salt and pepper. Transfer mixture to refrigerator and let chill for 30 minutes.

3. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

4. Remove duck mixture from refrigerator and form into 1 1/2- to 2-inch balls. Transfer to a baking sheet. Transfer baking sheet to oven and cook for 10 minutes.

5. Heat 1 teaspoon olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add remaining 2 cloves garlic, 1 shallot, and plum tomatoes. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 2 minutes. Add wine and cook until liquid is reduced by half, about 4 minutes. Add stock and thyme; let simmer for 20 minutes.

6. Strain liquid through a fine mesh strainer set over another large saucepan, discarding solids. Transfer meatballs to liquid and place over medium heat. Let meatballs simmer until cooked through, about 30 minutes.

7. Heat remaining teaspoon olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add remaining 2 shallots and cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent, about 2 minutes. Add meatballs and their cooking liquid, cavatelli, butter, mint, and chives; let cook for 2 minutes.

8. Divide mixture evenly between 4 bowls. Sprinkle over freshly grated parmesan cheese and crack a quail egg into each bowl; serve immediately.

Yield: 4 servings

Late this spring, Culture: An American Yogurt Company opened one block from my apartment. I surmised it would be yet another amalgamation of overexposed Pinkberry and Red Mango. I supposed it would quickly become a page in the prodigious book of failed NYC eateries.

Color me mistaken. Their fro-yo is off the hook, kids! Sweet and smooth, tart and tangy, it is like crack for 99.9% of customers. With toppings like key lime pie (lime curd, honey and graham crackers), fresh or muddled fruit, dark chocolate chunks or pina colada (fresh pineapple, caramel sauce and coconut macaroons) and flavors that run the gamut from mango strawberry to white peach to Nutella, they blow the competition out of the water with creativity and flavor.

The yogurt is made in Culture’s back room from hormone-free and antibiotic-free milk. The eatery itself is a certified New York State dairy, which means they make their product on site, soup to nuts, including milk pasteurization.

Not only have I become a regular patron, I’ve got a full-on, unequivocal addiction. They post their daily specialty flavors on a sidewalk chalkboard, an evil little ploy to add patrons to their already long line. And it works; the sign, in pretty pastel colors, begs you to “come hither” like a sexy sea siren luring lost mariners. It takes a heaping bucket of willpower not to fall prey to a Culture yogurt habit.

To ward off the demons, I decided to play yogurt god in the kitchen and create my own evil-good fro-yo masterpiece- lemon meringue frozen yogurt “sundaes.” I made a fairly simple vanilla bean and white chocolate yogurt from thick Greek yogurt and wrapped it in a coat of silken, creamy lemon curd. The addition of sweet white chocolate created more of a creamy semifreddo rather than a tart, icy frozen yogurt. Paired with the sweet-tart lemon curd, the flavors are perfectly balanced although the “sundae” ultimately feels more like a dessert splurge than Culture’s refreshing product.

Culture: An American Yogurt Company
331 Fifth Avenue
Brooklyn

Lemon Meringue “Sundaes” with White Chocolate Frozen Yogurt and Lemon Curd
White Chocolate Frozen Yogurt:
1 vanilla bean
4 cups whole milk Greek yogurt
1/4 cup superfine granulated sugar
1 ounce finely grated, high-quality white chocolate

1. Remove seeds from vanilla bean pod. In a large mixing bowl stir sugar and vanilla bean seeds into yogurt.

2. Melt chocolate in a double boiler and let cool slightly. Incorporate into yogurt, whisking briskly. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

3. Process in ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions.

Yield: 4 servings.

Lemon Curd:
3 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon finely shredded lemon zest
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice (from about 3 lemons)
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon olive oil

1. In a double boiler or stainless steel bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water, whisk together eggs, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice and cornstarch. Cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens, about 5 minutes.

2. Remove from heat and immediately pour through a fine strainer to remove lumps. Cut the butter into small pieces and whisk into the mixture. Add olive oil and whisk. Let cool.

3. Cover immediately with plastic wrap so a skin doesn’t form and refrigerate for up to a week.

Yield: 1 1/2 cups.

Speaking of which, I recently heard on the pontifical nightly news that in 2011, by and by, the cupcake will no longer be relevant. Really?!?! Will the iconic cupcake really fall out of favor with eaters? Is it really “so three years ago?” I’m 33 and have been eating them for 32 years! In fact, New York City boasts more cupcake shops than ever and the very hip Sweet Revenge in the West Village even pairs artisanal cupcake creations with wine and beer.

All the same, the tongue-wagers insist the Lilliputian confections have become a bygone trend. In response to naysayers, anti-sweet toothed crusaders and curmudgeons, I would like to give an extremely loud shout-out to Billy’s Bakery. As far as I’m concerned this is the best cupcake in Manhattan and rumor has it, one of the top five reasons my sister moved back to NYC after a year in the South!

The original Billy’s proprietor and baker Billy Reece (now Lauren after her gender reassignment) was trained in cupcake art by the famous Magnolia Bakery. Though I like Magnolia’s cupcakes, Billy’s has upped the ante. They are rich and flavorful without eliciting a toothache. Their batter is not overbeat, resulting in a moist, fluffy but substantive confection. The masterful buttercream frosting is not in the least gritty but whipped until ridiculously smooth and creamy.

Billy’s most beloved cupcakes flavors are, not surprisingly, classic chocolate and the yellow daisy (aka vanilla vanilla). Their menu consists of other retro desserts (which I admit to never tasting because why would I order anything but a yellow daisy?). If the mood strikes, try one of Billy’s other cupcake flavors: carrot, red velvet, banana, German chocolate and coconut. You want an ice box cake? Billy’s bakes ice box cakes. Have a hankering for cheese cake? Junior’s be damned! Billy’s also has a selection of pies, cakes, cookies and bars.

Chelsea
184 9th Avenue
212-647-9956
Monday to Thursday 8:30am-11pm
Friday and Saturday 8:30am-midnight
Sunday 9am-10 pm

Nolita
268 Elizabeth Street
212-219-9956
Monday to Thursday 10am-9pm
Friday and Saturday 10am-10pm
Sunday 10am-6pm

Tribeca
75 Franklin Street
212-647-9958
Monday to Friday 7am-9pm
Saturday 9am-9pm
Sunday 10am-5pm

It has been a while since I’ve posted on this sad and neglected site and what better way to resume than with the best darn cookies in Manhattan! Heck, let’s just go for the gold and call them the best darn cookies I’ve ever tasted (sorry, Mom)!

And speaking of the best, I have a hard time labeling anything “the best.” Unequivocally once something is branded the best, a host of “the better” crop up. I should know. I’m a hard-core judgmental eater: never fully satisfied and always on the prowl for the Holy Grail of eating.

Without a doubt, however, I have never ever tasted a more perfect cookie than those made by Levain Bakery on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. I stand by my bold statement (and feel free to play devil’s advocate). My cookie monster husband and I both agree- Levain makes the most bang-up cookie in town.

Each cookie weighs a whooping six ounces. Though their choices of chocolate chip walnut, oatmeal raisin, dark chocolate peanut butter chip and dark chocolate chocolate chip seem limited, once you take a bite out of any one of them, you will crave anything but diversity. My Achilles heel is the dark chocolate peanut butter chip but all varieties leave their competition in the dust. Each are perfectly chunky mini-mountains of dough, slightly crispy yet tender on the outside and if warm, gooey (read: almost raw) and soft in the middle.

A Levain cookie costs $4 and worth every cent, ample enough to satiate even the most consummate sweet tooth.

The bakery itself is a petite and uber-French-looking subterranean hole-in-the-wall on 74th and Amsterdam. The sweet aroma of chocolate morsels, decadently fresh baked bread, baked jelly doughnuts, scones, and cinnamon brioche wafts onto the street level, making it difficult for anyone, even exclusive salt lovers, to resist.

A few months ago, my aunt Paula decided that we need to capture our culture’s tradition through food, bottling up as much Jewish culture in a day’s work, touring New York City’s most iconic Jewish and Russian food spots. It would be an intimate family affair and we would sacrifice our stomachs to the pickled herring of New York, we’d spew Yiddish sayings at will, we’d start an annual tradition filled with nostalgia, humor, and self-discovery. Hence, Jewstalgia was born.

June 7 was the day of our first annual Jewstalgia and the behemoth gods of hot, hot heat were upon us. The oppressive sun hit our backs like the heavy, scorching roof of a Panini press. Sweat dripped down our slick backs like flowing, living waterfalls. However, we persevered. It was the type of severe weather where the appetite is suppressed, yet we kept eating like it was our last meal(s) on earth, our tenacious minds quarrelling with our contentious bellies.

We began the day on New York’s lower east side, a part of town brimming with Jewish heritage: Houston Street, Essex Street, Grand Street, Orchard Street- all painted with vestiges of a turn of the century immigrant history. The Lower East Side was once an epicenter for American Judaism, a neighborhood where immigrants, in particular Jewish immigrants, settled and developed a new capital of Jewish culture in America.

Arriving at our first destination, Russ and Daughters, at 179 East Houston Street, our feet were already pavement-weary, our faces coated with slick and salty sweat, our mind’s questioning our day’s work. But when met with the bounty of Jewish delicacies in the shop, we quickly forgot the weather’s curse, mustered our appetites and delved in.

Russ and Daughters is a polished yet authentic Jewish specialty shop filled with the foods we’ve come to identify with being Jewish- smoked fish, herring, cured salmon, caviar, chopped liver, and only the best of everything. We sampled items such as traditional pickled herring, rolled in dainty rounds, filled with tart pickled onions, rich chopped chicken liver like your Bubby made, tangy-sweet smoked salmon tartar, and the famous “Super Heeb Sandwich”, a pillowy bagel filled with creamy whitefish salad, horseradish cream cheese and the piece d’resistance- wasabi flying fish roe.

I honestly could have quit our adventure right then and there! The entire Russ and Daughter’s staff was not only helpful and courteous, but wholeheartedly joined in on our fun, teaching us eccentric and humorous Yiddish anecdotes, surveying our printed itinerary, and even taking our photo for their upcoming blog.

Just down the street from Russ and Daughter’s is Katz’s, a kosher deli dating back to 1888, a tourist hotspot and a quintessential New York Jewish deli. Some argue that Katz’s is overrated, overcrowded and unfriendly, but it is a truly historical New York experience, and a truly Jewish one. There’s something mischievous about eating at Katz’s: the ominous, never-ending rows of tables, the World War II décor, the ever-effusive patrons, the conveyer belt efficiency of the staff.

Some argue that the service is unpleasant and even abrasive. But let’s be honest, who comes to Katz’s Deli for the Michelin star service? They come to take a bite out of truly mouth-watering, spicy, juicy brined pastrami on rye, some of the city’s best. They come for the corned beef, the hot dogs, the tongue. They come for the tart, mouth-puckering dill pickles and pickled green tomatoes. They come to remember their pasts- the boys of World War II. They come to revel in their present- the salty, juicy deli meat filling their bellies and the frothy, sublime egg creams. Little known Katz’s fact: their latkes are splendid discs of perfectly crunchy and lightly salted potato with a piping hot, soft interior; a surprising find for folks not known for their latkes. We also ordered a mandatory Kasha filled knish, a staple of the Jewish household of yore.

At this point, you are probably thinking, “did they possibly move forward, did they possibly consume more? “ Yes, we did move onward and we did eat more, although begrudgingly at this juncture. The heat of the mid-afternoon sun was becoming increasingly oppressive. On our walk to our next destination, we had to seek shelter in a hole-in-the-wall convenient store, air conditioners lovelingly blowing blusteringly cold wind onto our sun kissed backs, providing us with a fleeting moment of reprieve. Our stomachs were growling, filled with the relics of our mornings work while our lungs and hearts were working overtime, fighting nature’s torridness.

And unfortunately, our subsequent two destinations were closed for the Sabbath. It is obvious you are dealing with a secular bunch when Jewish gastronomy day is planned on the Sabbath!

Guss’s Pickles on Orchard Street is the place to go for a briny bite of Jewish history. They offer an array of pickles including garlicky kosher sour, the salty half-sour, the spicy pickle and the pickled green tomato. Just down the street, Kossar’s Bialys was also resting for the Sabbath and thank goodness for small favors: could we really consume another carbohydrate?

Yes, apparently we would could. And we did. Our next stop features otherworldly carbs, like manna from heaven! Mark Isreal’s Doughnut Plant’s confections are astonishing- pillowy doughnuts so fluffy they melt in your mouth like cotton candy. We sampled the Valrhona chocolate, mango glazed and coconut cream doughnuts, although the coconut cream blasted the competition out of the sugary water with its subtle sweetness, coconut glaze sprinkled like snow on the outside of the yeasty pastry, a refined coconut cream running evenly through the perimeter of the doughnut like a silken river. Mr. Isreal makes use of only the freshest and most high quality ingredients, including fresh fruit in the glazes, high-end chocolate and homemade jelly.

Before our final and most memorable eating experience of the day, we made a required stop at the educational Tenement Museum at 97 Orchard Street. The tour takes you deep into the past, directly into the lives of newly minted Americans and their preserved home, a tenement built in 1863. The building has been restored to display the dismal living (and in-home working) conditions of the immigrants that inhabited the building over the course of half a century.

Our night began and ended not on the Lower East Side, but in Little Odessa in Brighton Beach (Brooklyn). We stumbled into Primorski in a collective delirium, more hungry for the air conditioner and stiff seats than for the actual meal and the cruise ship-like ambiance. Our experience at Primorski was truly trippy, authentically Russian, cheesy to the max and more kitschy than Pee Wee Herman. Everything at Primorski is grandiose and over-the-top.

This is the place to go for a never-ending Russian/Georgian family style meal, all you can drink vodka, live technoesque Europop, all under dizzying disco-lights. Suffice it to say that words cannot convey the utterly hilarious and simultaneously bizarre experience of Primorski. The restaurant is a dimly lit, windowless ballroom and as the night progresses and the patrons become increasingly intoxicated, the music crescendos and frenetic dancing fills any potential void in the sprawling room. Like clockwork, the singers treated the eaters to their raspy rendition of “Happy Birthday” eleven times, complete with larger than life birthday cakes. We began to assume that we were not only the only non-Russian speakers in the room, but also the only table not celebrating a birthday.

Some of the food at Primorski was questionable, at least to our sensibilities, which was okay, since the banquet menu is essentially ceaseless. We jettisoned the seafood dishes in favor of salty meats and the plethora of carbohydrates. The menu went something like this: crab salad, chicken in jelly, Caesar salad, eel salad, seafood salad, duck salad, chicken in jelly, herring, pickled tomatoes, cucumbers and cabbage, smoked fish platter which included smoked white fish, smoked salmon, smoked sturgeon, various cold cuts including tongue, galantine, smoked pork meat and other mysterious meats, crispy fried potatoes with garlic, khachapuri (Georgian bread patty filled with cheese), bilinis with red caviar, warm seafood platter, chicken Kiev, various fried meats, a fruit platter and fruit filled crepes. If you feel exhausted reading that list, try to be on the receiving end of the plethora of shameless gluttony, especially after a marathon day of excessive eating.

We ate, we drank, we conquered. Our first annual Jewstalgia was filled with great food, vivid history, bright new memories forged and yes, nostalgia.

Katz’s Deli
205 E Houston St
New York, NY 10002
(212) 254-2246

http://www.katzdeli.com/

Guss’s Pickles
87 Orchard St
New York, NY 10002
(212) 334-3616

http://www.gusspickle.com/

Kossar’s Bialys
367 Grand Street
New York, NY
(877)-4-BIALYS

http://www.kossarsbialys.com/

Doughnut Plant
379 Grand St
New York, NY 10002
212-505-3700
www.doughnutplant.com

Primorski
282 Brighton Beach Ave #B
Brooklyn, NY 11235

http://www.primorski.net/

The Tenement Museum
97 Orchard Street
www.tenement.org/tours.html