Bentara

Bentara

www.bentara.com

It’s our new favorite place. The décor is sleek- with exposed brick, hand made wooden tables and a tongue-in-cheek display of Malaysian puppets in shadow boxes. But while the place is totally reminds you of a NYC eatery, it doesn’t take itself too seriously. This is one of the very few Malaysian restaurants in the state, so they know that people aren’t coming in knowing what things are. Therefore, the menu includes an explanation section telling you what things are and what they taste like in layman’s terms, saving any guy on a first date from having to look like an idiot by asking the waiter what “Kuew Teow” actually IS. (But if you do have a question for the waitstaff they are fantastic – personable and full of suggestions).

We started with an order of Satay- chicken kabobs with compressed rice, coconut -peanut sauce and cucumber slices. We could smell it in advance so that by the time they arrived the Hubby was drooling. Literally- I had to tell him to wipe his face. The presentation was fun and comforting with little squares of rice that reminded me of Jello cubes from the cafeteria. The chicken was great on its own but the sauce was so good we ate spoonfuls of it when the chicken ran out- bits of coconut that helped to cut the richness of the peanuts and possibly ruined ordinary Chinese peanut chicken for us forever. We think it would be interesting to see if a child liked this dish- when we get around to that whole baby thing, we’re thinking this would make a great alternative to chicken nuggets.

Next were wok fried chicken plates. They come in four levels of hotness: mild, medium, regular and hot. The Hubs had mild Kuew Teow Goreng- broad, fettuccini looking noodles that was light and chewy with a stickier texture than pasta, and I had the medium Mee Goreng (lo mein noodles). What really worked for is that unlike other spicy food around, the heat doesn’t drown out the amazing complexity of flavors in the dishes. It’s just a flavor and texture explosion in your mouth with heat, sweet, and a bunch spices that meld together to make you sweat just enough to notice, but not enough to need to wipe your brow.

Who knew that Malaysian food could be so good? It’s reminiscent of Chinese but much more sophisticated and complicated. Our short take- If you enjoy York Noodle House but love heat, this is a must try.

Mulberry Burgers

So, the Mrs. and I tried out the "Mulberry Street Burger" last night. For those of you who don't know, this was a recipe perfected by Michael on The Next Food Network Star (who, as it turns out, will NOT be the next Food Network star). This burger sounded absolutely delicious with a mozzarella-stuffed patty covered with arugula and a garlic ketchup, all sitting within garlic bread. How original and how could this possibly not be earth-shatteringly delicious! You can find the recipe here, by the way: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/mini-challenge-mulberry-street-burger-recipe/index.html

We were both very excited to try this burger a few weeks back when we heard that Bobby's Burger Place, a fast food joint by Bobby Flay, would carry the burger, but mildly disgusted when we found out BBP's version was lacking a key ingredient--garlic bread! That's what makes this burger unique (we thought!). Finally, last night we decided to make the Mulberry Street Burger ourselves. I should first point out that we were trying to be healthy, so we used ground turkey instead of ground beef (sacrificing flavor, I know, but heart attacks are bad). We halved the amount of crushed red pepper flakes since I don't like too much heat in my food (Megan can handle more).

The end result was good, but not as mind-altering as we had hoped. The mozzarella worked wonderfully, but even with the reduced red pepper flakes, I thought there was a bit too much heat. The garlic ketchup was fantastic and we admittedly dipped our accompanying tator tots in it (and the burger). I would gladly eat a burger swimming in the ketchup! The biggest surprise of all, though, was the garlic bread--I thought it was overkill and I didn't really taste it in the burger. The ketchup and arugula are already such strong flavors that the garlic bread is unnecessary fat, honestly. My recommendation (and what I think we will try next) is to continue stuffing the burger with mozzarella, but instead of the copious red pepper flakes, actually flavor the meat with some hot sauce, maybe some Worcestershire sauce, and some onion for texture. The unflavored meat that the recipe calls for is not very inspiring; I'll go to McDonalds if I want bland burgers. If you do decide to flavor the burger, too, it might be apropos to remove the red pepper flakes from the arugula unless you want your mouth to be on fire. Keep the ketchup--it's fantastic! Make extra for the side. Finally, skip the garlic bread. A nice bakery roll would work better, I think.

We'll let you know how our burger adventures continue. Next update will likely be based upon wherever we eat this weekend (haven't decided yet...Mexican???).

Eatin' Pretty in the City

Bored with CT, the Hubbers and I wandered into Manhattan yesterday with no set plans and empty tummies. We had heard about Junior's cheesecake online and were psyched to try it for the first time. Imagine my surprise when we got to the stand in GCT and I realized that Juniors is where I ALWAYS get dessert before getting on the train. Who knew that other people liked it so much too! We indulged in a slice of Junior's devil's food cake -1/2 chocolate cake with layers of chewy fudgy frosting with dark chocolate chips and 1/2 creamy, not to sweet cheesecake. I loved how the two balanced each other- the cheesecake is super smooth and slightly sour, but light, and it really worked well with the dense cake and super sweet fudge frosting. Our special thanks to the counter guy who asked if we wanted the larger slice of cake and understood without me having to explain that Coke Zero is far superior to Diet Coke. Obviously he and I are kindred souls and must have dated in a past life.

Cafe Olympia (833 2nd Ave) was a surprising find. We wanted to escape the midtown crush and literally wandered into this deli/pizza/noodle bar/grocery store. I loved that this shop just can't decide what it wants to be when it grows up- even the music was conflicting- Spanish salsa, Asian ballads and pop music play simultaneously and at top volume to assault your ears. One would think the result would be a walk to the western wall of the cafe for some aspirin, but instead the sounds meld to create a funky, if frenzied soundtrack for your dining experience. Sandwiches here are imaginative, large and well priced. My spicy turkey, mayo, pepper jack cheese and roasted red peppers on multigrain bread was fantastic, and at $6.50 with a soda(!), I was grinning by the end of the meal (although I'm somewhat positive that the air conditioning and cold beverage contributed to my improved mood).

The best part of the day though (from a culinary point of view, since the stroll in Central Park was romantic and the real best part of the day) was the green tea mochi ball we tried for dessert. As we payed for our sandwiches, I noticed these fun looking little balls of dough by the counter. I pointed out their cuteness and my desire to play with them to the Hubby (he really is so tolerate of my weirdness) and the owner overheard me. She said they were fantastic Japanese desserts and that we had to try one. After assuring us that the green tea flavor was her favorite, I selected a lime green lump and practically skipped away convinced I holding a delicious treat in my hand which could potentially double as playdough.

I was even more delighted when I remembered that I had heard of mochi before- anyone who watched last season of ABC's "I survived a Japanese Game Show" will remember how contestants had to eat as many balls of mochi as they could in 10 minutes. I recalled that they said that it was very chewy. I also recalled that while none of them loved it, no one tossed their cookies, which made us a bit bolder in unwrapping our prize.

So we opened it. The patty/ball/lump was very squishy to the touch - it was highly satisfying to prod at, but tasted like, well, mushy rice. Inside was a fun filling- BEANS! that's right, beans, as in like a paste of red beans that was just slightly sweet and tasted like the legume with little adornment. To be perfectly honest, we didn't like it. The outer paste tasted like gummy flour, and the bean paste was a lil gritty. It wasn't good eating, but we were happy to try something new, and in all honesty, the poking, prodding and pulling at the cake was so much fun that it didn't really matter that we didn't want to eat it. I urge you all to decide the mochi debate for yourself the next time you are feeling peckish, but as a toy, mochi rocks!

Bobby's Burger Palace- BBPs

While watching "The Next Foodnetwork star" last night, Bobby Flay announced that he was opening a new Bobby's Burger Palace at Mohegan Sun this weekend. My husband (its been 3 weeks and I'm still not used to calling him that!) almost knocked each other out trying to get to the computer to look up the deets. Sure enough, BBP was open for business. So we hit the road this morning and suffered through horrible holiday weekend traffic to see if these burgers live up to Flay's reputation.
We were bummed to see that while they had the winning Mulberry Burger from the show on the menu, it was sans the garlic bread bun that had us so excited to try it. Nonetheless, there were ample burger options, so much that I wavered between the Sante Fe and the LA during the entire 15 minute line to place our order. Hubby went for the Miami-swiss, ham, pickles, mustard and mayo,while I decided on the LA- watercress, avocado, tomato and cheddar. We rounded out the order with sweet potato fries, beer battered onion rings and 2 black and white shakes. (I just want to caveat this by pointing out we had come directly from the gym).
Service was quick and efficient and remained so the whole time we were there. The shakes came out first and while seemingly small, they were made with real ice cream and were so thick and creamy that they outlasted our burgers and fries. Burgers were perfectly cooked- really juicy. Both were great, but we agreed that the avocado in the LA Burger put mine over the top. We both chose to "crunchify" our burgers, a Flay trademarked term for adding potato chips on top. It was a smart choice- the flavor of the chips wasn't really there, but the crunchy texture and the salt really added a great contrast to the creaminess of the avocado for me, and the smoothness of the swiss for Hubby.
Onion rings were good, but made great with the addition of the BBPs Chipotle Ketchup. It has a great smokiness to it and a fair amount of heat. I would think it would be great to have in the house for those days when you just can't decide between plain ketchup or BBQ sauce. Sweet potato fries were a huge portion size and were cut perfectly- crispy, yet thick enough that the mouth feel and sweetness of the potato wasn't lost.
We enjoyed the wavy, bar style seating and the neutral color palette as a nice reprise from the casino's overstimulating decor. While not everyone will like the idea of eating next to strangers, I thought it was a modern take on the soda counters of the 1950s and I enjoyed the respectful nod to the burger's beginnings.
RATING- 5 out of 5 stars. The question isn't will we eat there again, the question is what will we order when we do.