Tasting Poland at Lomzynianka

I recently accompanied a food club to one of New York City’s best pierogi joints. We visited Lomzynianka in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, a small Polish restaurant that lightens the diners’ spirit with its abundance of streamers hanging on the ceiling and flower leis around a deer’s head.

Diners will know they are getting an authentic experience by peering into the kitchen, which looks more like a family’s kitchen in Lomza, Poland—the region that inspires many of the dishes—than a commercial one.

I shared my food with a fellow diner. We started off with the Pierogi Sampler, which offers a plate full of the dumplings (you can have them boiled or fried).

It would be a disappointment for anyone who visits this restaurant and doesn’t have them. Each pierogi bursts with flavor and didn’t exhibit the bland doughy taste that many restaurants settle for. Order the pierogies stuffed with potato and cheese, as well as the ones with meat; I found it hard to pick a favorite.

We also had the Polish Platter which included three more pierogies, kielbasa, stuffed cabbage, bigos and potatoes. While I visited the restaurant for the pierogies, the rich rustic taste of the stuffed cabbage was the highlight of the meal.

Better yet, the tab for two full diners was less than $20.

Polish Platter

Pierogi Sampler

(Photos taken from Yelp.com users)

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4th Annual NYC Food Film Festival

The Fourth Annual NYC Food Film Festival started today, and tickets are still available for some events. Attendees will be able to sample food from around the world while receiving a "heaping helping of mouth-watering films."

A can't miss would be tomorrow night's event with Chef Brad Farmerie's Southeast Asian Street Food Market. The Kiwi (New Zealander) chef is known for preparing innovative dishes in his popular downtown spot Public. I've been there a few times and have always left satisfied.

Here's the festival's schedule:

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Chef Mario Batali's World Cup Recipes

With the World Cup games underway, soccer/football fans everywhere are gathering in groups to watch their favorite team vie for the trophy.

If you are planning on hosting a World Cup party over the next few days, ESPN added a fun feature on their website to help you out. The feature has Chef Mario Batali sharing recipes of each participating countries' signature dish and cocktail.

For example, Team Brazil fans can enjoy sipping caiprinhas while supporters of Team Spain can chow down on some homemade paella. And for those loyal Yankee fans, Chef Batali gives you a mean hamburger recipe to be washed down with a killer martini. Enjoy!

To access Chef Mario Batali's World Cup recipes, click here.

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Amateur Cooking Hour: Poulet Au Paprika

Perhaps it's because I'm an amateur in all things food, but it took a couple of tries to cook the rather simple French dish, Poulet Au Paprika or Paprika Chicken. The recipe I followed came from Phaidon's I Know How To Cook, and it called for a 2 1/4 lb. chicken, butter, stock, crème fraiche and paprika.

My troubles started when I couldn’t find a chicken that was exactly 2 ¼ lbs., and I assumed that the slightly heavier poultry I purchased would need to be accompanied by more of each ingredient. So, I estimated how much more butter to include, which inadvertently led to estimating how much more stock, crème fraiche and paprika to add.

After an hour of cooking the chicken in the oven, I quickly combined the leftover stock with the remaining ingredients to make the sauce. In five minutes, the meal was served.

The result was soggy chicken drenched in a thin, white sauce. And the sauce itself tasted like stock bothered with the sourness from crème fraiche. If it weren’t for my dislike of wasting food, I would have thrown the whole thing away.

Now, there were two things learned from this experience. The first is do not estimate the measurements for ingredients, especially for a dish that you never tried cooking. The second is patience. In this case, the chicken needed to sit on the pan and brown before putting it in the oven for an hour. The sauce needed time to boil and thicken, even if it meant adding an extra 30 minutes or more to the overall cooking time.

Last Sunday, I gave cooking Poulet Au Paprika another try. This time around, I stuck with the measurements and patiently waited for the chicken skin to brown to a slight crisp and the stock to truly merge with the crème fraiche and paprika.

The end product was exactly what I expected it to be the first time around: tender chicken coated in a butter cream sauce. The sauce itself reflected the mild, smoky flavor of paprika. Delicious.

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