Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan

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November 16, 2010 By cheryl

Ciano: A Night to Remember


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The idea had been to have dinner, plain and simple.

No thinking about writing about the dishes as we're eating. No scribbling of notes. No blogging. This was a celebration, after all. There should be no room at the table for work of any sort.

But the moment our food started arriving, the game plan changed. Ciano, the much-anticipated new restaurant by Shea Gallante (who greatly impressed critics and diners at the now-shuttered Cru, where he earned three stars from The New York Times' Frank Bruni), pretty much had me at shrimp balls.

From my first nibble of rock shrimp polpette ($8 for five), the deliciously warm one-inch balls stuffed with big chunks of shrimp, I was hooked. Out came the paper and pen and off we were …

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Filed Under: Italian, New York, Restaurants Tagged With: Arancini, Birthday, Bjoern Boettcher, Blood orange, Cake, Celery heart leaf, Chocolate, Ciano, Cru, Dacquoise, Fall vegetables, Frank Bruni, Gnocchi, Grass-fed, Meatballs, New York, New York Times, Orata, Polpette, Rib-eye, Rice, Sea Bream, Shea Gallante, Shrimp, Sicilian, Steak, Tomato

July 3, 2009 By cheryl

A Mouth Full of Booger


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Slowly and carefully, Greg and I chewed, on the verge of both laughter and disgust as we tried to put a name to what it was we were tasting.

“It’s like a bad taco,” Greg said.

“Tequila or margaritas — regurgitated,” I said, thinking suddenly of a college night long, long ago.

It was actually vomit that we were sampling — vomit-flavored jelly beans, to be precise.

When we had passed a display of rather unappetizing-sounding new Jelly Belly flavors at the Fancy Food Show in New York City, we had known it was a silly gimmick but hadn’t been able to resist. And so we spent some unpleasant minutes with mouths full of centipede (which tasted like grass and earth), skunk spray (as billed) and canned dog food (think Chef Boyardee). (Canned dog food and centipede are new this year.)

Drawing the line at Baby Wipes, we decided to walk away while our tastebuds were still intact.

“I still taste Booger in my mouth,” Greg whispered as we slunk away.

Well, somewhat intact, I suppose.

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Filed Under: New York, Snacks, Sweets Tagged With: Acai, Baby Wipes, Bacon Lollipops, Baltimore Sun, Blood orange, Centipede, Chef Boyardee, Chocolate, Citrus, Das Foods, Dog Food, Earl Grey, Efferve, Fancy Food Show, Green tea, Grits, Houston Chronicle, Jelly beans, Jelly Belly, Knipschildt Chocolatier, Marmalade, National Association for the Specialty Food Trade, New Hampshire, San Francisco, Sara Engram, Sid Wainer, Skunk Spray, Smart Spice, Tcho, The Seasoned Palate, The Spice Kitchen, Toblerone, Village Mixes, Vomit, Yorkshire Tea, Yuzu

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