Kaz An Nou

 Kaz An Nou is cozy restaurant in Prospect Heights serving French Caribbean food. It looks like a mom & pop restaurant, a warm ambience served by a charming afro'd owner with a killer smile and Caribbean accent. Considering that the meats are antibiotic free, the prices are very good, and it's BYOB with no corking fee.We saw several people run out to the wine store down the block.
There is a token vegetarian ratatouille dish, but the meaty dishes are the stars here. For appetizers, we shared the Tatin D' Abricot et Foie Gras ($8) and Escargots($7). It was my first time having escargots and foie gras. (I've been eating more unusual animal proteins lately!) I love apricots, so I knew I would like the honeyed apricot slices, but I was hesitant about the foie gras garnish. Yes, I'm aware of the ethical quandaries of the liver specialty produced by force-feeding the geese. But I scooped it up and savored the resulting buttery, rich, fatty foie gras that complemented the fruit. The tender escargot was doused in a spicy, pesto-like green garlic curry sauce and tasted to me like terrestrial clams, nestling in the hollows of a dish that looked like a mini devil's egg earthenware plate. I forgot to take photos of these dishes! There was also a bread basket with a light olive oil that was noteworthy on its own.

For entrees, C got the Agouolu ($12), a West Indian style burger topped with mushrooms and swiss cheese. It was juicy, accompanied with crisp fries. I got the Dombres Crevettes($14), traditional Guadeloupe shrimp and dumplings. The dish looked more like a soup, with large fresh shrimp and "dumplings" of little gnocchi-like potato balls swimming in a bowl of an unexpectedly spicy, savory broth that was like gumbo. F got the best dish, the Magret et Maracudja ($16), a smoked duck breast with passion fruit glaze and mashed yams. The sweet glaze on the duck was delicious over the tender dark duck meat with a crisped skin that slid easily from the bone and I kept reaching over to pick at her plate.



Dombres Crevettes: Guadeloupe Shrimp and Dumplings



Magret et Maracudja: Smoked Duck with Passion Fruit glazed and Yams



Angalou ($12): West Indian style Burger with mushrooms

Of course, we saved room for dessert from a rotating menu: a signature molten chocolate cake($6) served warm, moist with a spiced compote, a warm apple pie($6) with large chunks of apple and a delectable coconut flan($6). The flan was infused with flecks of coconut that lingered on our tongue after we eagerly scooped the silken flan. I wanted an entire coconut flan pie.  After scraping the dessert dishes clean and gulping the last of our 3 bottles of wine, we left as happy clams.



Coconut Flan!



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Warm, spicy molten chocolate cake



Fried grasshoppers do not taste like chicken.

Fried grasshoppers do not taste just like chicken. I attended a private tasting event at the new location of Rhong Tiam Garden thrown by chef owner Andy Yang in the Lower East Side. In a glance, it just looks like a takeout counter, but towards the back there is a door mounted with a fake payphone. Once you input the magic password, the door swings open to a warm little enclosed backgarden that resembled a greenhouse with painted Thai murals.

The fried grasshoppers, seasoned with salt and pepper, had the table tittering(or twittering?) Now, I like to keep an open palate when it comes my plate, and I'll try everything once. I don't know what is the proper form in eating a grasshopper, so I just grabbed one and bit a leg(limb?!) off. Crunch, munch, crunch. It didn't taste like chicken. It didn't taste like something out of the Men in Black movie oozing goo, either. It tasted like the garden version of a crawfish, crisp, light and grassy. Its not just a novelty item, but its also packed with protein and "clean," since grasshoppers eat mostly grass.  Also, grasshoppers could be a sustainable meat source since they are so plentiful and cheap.



Fried Grasshoppers: they really do look like cockroaches in the camera flash, ugh




Alligator satay skewers with peanut sauce




I stuffed the entire bug into my mouth and crunched loudly, much to the horror of my friend, who stuck to the usual beef pad see euw, Thai basil fried rice and a poached egg with ground chicken or pork. There was also alligator satay skewers, which tasted a bit like chicken, but with a fishy flavor and still lean.

The crispy pork ears were fried ribbons of pork cartilage and they were tasty. They'd be a good bar snack. For drinks, there was this watermelon drink that was served with all the fuss of nitrogen smoke. The fresh watermelon was a refreshing match to the saltiness of the Thai street food.



Crispy pig ears with chili lime

If that's a taste of authentic street Thai food, then I want more. Everything tastes good fried, especially buzzed!

Cherry Blossoms and Cupcakes

This past weekend I made the pilgrimage to Washington, DC to see the lush cherry blossoms...and to sink my teeth into those celebrated Georgetown cupcakes!

My tasting team and I waited on line for 1.5 hours through rain, cold, wind and hail(!). It was worth it. Georgetown has an exhausting daily list of flavors, and we got a baker's dozen plus.



Georgetown uses premium ingredients like Valhrona chocolate and Madagascar vanilla, and the semi-precious provenance elevates the original flavors. The frostings were light, the cake was moist and they were NOT saccharine sweet. I'd eat Georgetown cupcakes over Magnolia, Crumbs(ugh, sugarbombs) and even Sugar Sweet Sunshine. A bite into Peannut Butter Fudge was rewarded with a fudge core that spilled like molten lava in our mouth. Hummingbird was sweetly flecked with pineapple and the Cherry Blossom cupcake actually tastes of cherries.

You can order online and saunter past the line to pick them up at a scheduled time. Apparently they give out free special cupcakes via Twitter daily, and fairly priced at $2.75 each. They have a few tables in the back where you can gawk and try not to lick the window where you can watch them bake the goods. The workers are mostly fresh-faced young things and suspiciously skinny.



A cache of cupcakes: Red Velvet, Cherry Blossom, Vanilla Birthday, Chocolate Birthday, Girl Scout Thin Mint cookie, Peanut Butter Fudge, Hummingbird, Key Lime,  Salted Caramel...



I think this kid licked the glass. I would too. 

Georgetown is a cupcake town. There's Sprinkles, a LA-based chain a couple of blocks away, where people probably settle for after scanning the long line outside Georgetown cupcakes. They have a chirpy staff and they have clean, minimalist packaging that I dug.  I prudently got a cherry blossom cupcake, which was garnished with a red fondant circle that reminded me of the Target bullseye but was probably a nod to the Japanese flag(duh). It was fragant and slightly sweeter than Georgetown's. They have a similarly rotating menu of niche flavors too, including dark chocolate, ginger lemon and chai. I'll be back!

You'd think I'd be cupcake'd out, but I decided to hit one more Georgetown bakery, Baked & Wired , which is apparently where Georgetown locals prefer to go to. Located on a side street, there was no line inside but there was a definite buzz. Twice the size of those at Sprinkles or Georgetown, making it good to share as little cakes and merits the $3.85 a pop. They also have the most novel flavors and winky names; including Smurfette, Elvis and Pretty Bitchin' Chocolate. I blindly picked a bunch out of the impressive array of cupcakes nestled under each belljar. You can nibble on them leisurely in the lounging area, which had cool blackboard walls and looked like a real neighborhood hangout. Georgetown cupcakes is a zoo!

Elvis Impersonator Banana, Red Velvet, Texas Sheetcake and Menage a Trois

I'm glad I came with a cupcake crew to help me split up the cupcake calories. Half the cupcake, half the calories! I did eat some more substantial food, albeit unhealthy. For dinner, I went to Ray's Hell Burger in Arlington, Virginia, where I polished off a sizable burger and a heap of crisp onion rings.  Casual and completely unpretentious. Dirt cheap as you can pile on all the mostly free toppings and sauces you want, and make your own burger. I asked for medium rare, but it was slightly overcooked. It was still juicy, though and Obama approved!

I was also craving crab cakes, so for lunch I went to Market Lunch at the Eastern Market. It's a stall serving breakfast and lunch in the indoors Eastern Market which reminds me of Essex Market. I got the crabcake sandwich, a deal at $9 and snarfed it down at the cafeteria table. It was lovely and lumpy with crab meat and minimal breading, just the way I like it.

 I walked it off by visiting the gorgeous Japanese cherry blossoms rimming the Tidal Basin. It was worth elbowing the hordes of tourists for my own photo ops. The older trees fanned graceful low lying branches that extended to the water and dramatically framed the monuments. Delicate and papery, the cherry blossoms were more ivory than blush pink and they don't have any actual scent, contrary to what Bath & Bodyworks sells every season! You can find cherry blossoms and magnolia trees, which are equally showy, blooming throughout DC downtown.

Eggplant schnitzel

Today I hit up the Schnitzel Truck, which is a Midtown Lunch favorite for its schnitzel and fried burgers, which are delicious burger bombs. But today I was looking for something a bit less meaty, and they had a special of Eggplant Schnitzel!
The fried eggplant is pounded extra thin and covered with a fine, crisp layer of panko crumbs. The sides of beets and feta and the cucumber were a juicy relish side. A bit of a wait, but worth it! I couldn't really taste the eggplant, but its tender and crisp, not greasy.



Schnitzel Truck Eggplant Schnitzel with Beets & Feta and Cucumber, $8