Dining B7May 7 – 13 2009 The Epoch Times

Le Colonial

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Ingredients:1 frozen puff pastry sheet,

thawed1 lb brown sugar½ cup water1 lb unsalted butter, cut into

pieces6-7 medium-size Granny

Smith, cored and cut into quarters

3 Tablespoons sugar mixed 2 Tablespoons cinnamon

Method:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Peel, core and slice apples. In a medium stainless steel sauté pan or heavy iron skillet com-bine sugar and water. Bring to a boil. Cook over medium heat until it turns brown color and thickens. Remove from the heat, add the butter and let cool. Line the outside of a 9-inch spring form pan with foil to catch drips. Spread butter evenly into a 9-inch spring form pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Pour caramelized sugar into spring form pan. Arrange apple slices into an overlap-ping pattern over sugar layer. After you have covered the pan with one layer of apples, sprinkle them with half of the cinnamon sugar. On a f loured work surface, roll pastry sheet

into a 10 ½ inch square and to a thickness of about 1/8 to ¼ inch and place it over the ap-ples. Cut out a 10-inch round. Trim the edges with a sharp knife, using a plate as a guide. Transfer round to a baking sheet and chill. Cover apples with pastry, trimming sides if necessary. Place the spring form pan on a baking sheet. Add another layer of apples and sprinkle with the remain-ing cinnamon sugar. Bake in preheated oven for 40 min-utes, or until pastry is golden brown. Allow to cool slightly, then release sides of pan. Place a large plate over pastry, then invert so apple layer is on top. Remove bottom of pan slice and serve (with icecream if desired).

RecipeTarte Tatin

A taste of Indochine

FEATUREDRESTAURANT

By NADIA GHATTASEpoch Times Staff

Le Colonial is a place you would perhaps encounter in a dream—a place poetic and luxurious. Here history and culture are combined with warm service. As you stand in front of this building located in the heart of Manhattan, you are trans-ported to days gone by. This town-house could have been a mansion of old New York, Europe, or a colonial residence in Southeast Asia. As you enter, you feel that you are perhaps in French Indochina of the 1920s. Slowly turning fans from the very high ceiling, banana and palm trees all around and in the middle of the room, used as dividers to separate space and tables in the spacious din-ing room, while the smell of fresh fl owers, lilies, and such transport you to the lush tropics. Handsome, louvered shutters line the walls of the dining area. Woven rattan chairs surround the dining tables that stand over the uniquely tiled fl oors, while photographs full of history and life of the 1920s hang around the walls and up the staircase into the upper level where you will fi nd a large ma-hogany bar. Guests can sit at the bar or lounge in the comfortable sofas and antique furnishings of east and west. Sit down and relax to the nos-talgic music in the background, loud enough to hear while carrying on a conversation but not obtrusive. The music is from the personal collec-tion of executive chef Xuan Pham, with songs by Edith Piaf, Charles Aznavour, Lucienne Delyle, George Brassens, Yves Montand, Juliette Greco, and Enrico Macias.

As she sat across from me, Pham told me that the French occupa-tion of Vietnam left a mark on the cooking techniques of Vietnamese dishes, like shaken beef known as Bo Luc Lac, the French Baguette or Ban Mi, and their fondness for the Vietnamese ice coffee or ca-phe sua da. With degrees in different fi elds, from pharmacology, to an MBA, and then to cooking school, Pham told me that she came from a family of scientists and was mar-ried to yet another scientist who entertained a lot at home. That ex-perience, coupled with the basic ed-ucation in Saigon that girls should be good housewives and with her world travel, gave her a lot of ex-posure to many cuisines. When she saw what came from the kitchens of many Vietnamese restaurants in the United States, she felt that a lot of interesting aspects of her county’s food and culture was missing and wanted to introduce these elements

for the world to enjoy. I believe that Chef Xuan is a true culinary artist who has elevated this cuisine to high gastronomic levels. It only requires one experience to realize this. Make sure you go with an empty stomach, for there is plenty to explore. The menu is diverse, with each dish per-fectly executed. There are the spe-cials, regular, and bar menus. Pham’s work is an example of the diversity that can be found in Vietnam. Pham trained under culinary legend, chef Michael Richards and is now the executive chef for Le Colonial in San Francisco and New York.

Pham told me about her chal-lenges in designing the menu for these two locations. She said that one must understand the culture, its people, and the clients in order to please. The two menus vary depending on the season and availability of in-gredients. Pham tries to maintain a menu that is authentic Vietnamese with a French twist to keep the full experience of that of the 1920s. She also believes in sustainability and

the use of fresh ingredients from lo-cal farms. According to her, “My mission in life is to be both a mes-senger and a healer.” You can see that in the exquisite array of dishes done with impeccable sensitivity to color, texture, taste, and presenta-tion. Pham believes in the balance of yin and yang. She is also another type of artist: a pianist and a painter who believes in a “minimalist form.” These sensibilities are refl ected in her dishes that appear simple but contain intricate and complex

fl avors. Vietnamese

food, like the nation, has its own personal-ity. This person-ality is not only found in the street food or the stands that we know of that sell the famous noodle soup or the Ban Mi sandwiches. It is also much more sophisticated, diverse, and

complex than I imagined. It is deli-cate, refi ned, full of fl avors, colors, and textures. Fresh herbs and lettuce wraps accompany almost every dish to enhance its fl avors and textures.

The experience is about balance between yin and yang, to enhance health and moods. The cuisine is af-fected by regional areas with differ-ing temperatures and surroundings, bursting with fl avors of hot and cold, sweet and salt, smooth and crunchy. A basic sauce to compliment most dishes is the salty fi sh sauce Nuoc Mam or a seafood-based broth with vegetables called canh.

The traditional way of using this prevailing sauce is with the Nuoc Cham, a delightfully tangy, piquant seasoning mix with garlic, chili pepper, sugar, lime juice, and vine-gar—a combination yielding a well-defi ned personality, indispensable for savory dishes. It adds depth of fl avor to soups, salads, marinades, and dipping sauces. Another ba-sic ingredient used in Vietnamese cuisines is rice paper. Traditionally it is made with thin batter of rice steamed over a piece of cloth then transferred with a bamboo stick to a drying crosshatched bamboo mat for markings. This is the rice pa-per used for all spring and summer rolls. It is then rolled in leafy vegeta-bles and herbs.

My friends and I have been to Le Colonial a few times, and each time has been as good as the fi rst. From the Specials Menu, we started with the Avocado Crab Martini, very refreshing with a wonderful tangy taste and balanced with crunchy cel-ery and sweet red pepper, a nice way to start your meal on a hot day. The crabs are hand picked from Maine and served in a martini glass. We then had few of the signature dishes starting with spring rolls. The Cha Cio, traditional imperial crispy spring rolls, are made with shrimp, pork, and shii-take mushrooms. The Cha Gio Vit, crispy duck rolls have taro, ji-cama, mint, and nuoc cham dip. My preference is the Cha Cio. However, both had complex fl a-vors with soft and crunchy tex-tures wrapped in fresh herbs and lettuce giv-ing the hot and cold contrast. We then had the Goi Cuon, sum-mer rolls with shrimp, bean sprouts, rice vermicelli, mint, and peanut sauce. This shows the fi ne, delicate, and intricate work it takes to make this food. Xuan demonstrated how the rice sheets are made with her dainty hands. It takes such hands to produce this intricate and deli-cate work with attention to balance of texture and fl avors. A painter paints with a brush to produce a painting, this talented chef, is able to do so with food—the presenta-tion was as if painted with a brush on canvas. While the textures, the smoothness of the rice paper mixed with the crunchy jicama and the sweet dipping sauce. The Banh

Cuon Tom, shrimp raviolis drizzled with light coconut milk. Each of the pieces was gently folded like a gift, very delicate with wonderful fl avors while the Banh Tom Diep, the chef’s original composition of scallop pot stickers served with ginger ponzu dipping sauce. For avid shrimp lov-ers, the Chao Tom, grilled shrimp mousse wrapped on sugar cane with lettuce wrap and peanut sauce. You want this to be chewy, so it won’t fall apart. As you bite the contrasting fl avors burst in your mouth.

For entrées, I highly recommend Tom Range Me, butterfl y prawns in tamarind lychee sauce over a bed of crispy cellophane noodles with mango, a popular and mouthwater-ing dish from Vietnam and one out of this world. Only a culinary gen-ius could produce a dish that looks simple but rich with fl avors—zesty

and tangy, sweet and sour with infl uence from Thailand by us-ing the cellophane noodles. The shrimp is cooked with its skin that should be eaten. It sparkles with fl avors. Two other favorite signature dishes are a must have, the Steamed Chilean Sea Bass, gently and ten-derly wrapped in banana leaves

and ginger soy sauce. As my friend took a bite, she stopped for a mo-ment, as if she made a double take, gave a big smile as she swallowed and said, “I did not know that fi sh could taste so good.” Indeed, the dish was heavenly. This fi sh has lay-ers of fat, which gave a texture as smooth as is buttered milk melt-ing in your mouth. The Cha Chien Saigon, crispy whole red snapper comes with its head. Although fried, it is light and crispy on the outside and juicy inside with a sweet and sour sauce that blends perfectly with it. This wonderful chef can put forth a delightful array of dishes on both sides of the continent. In China, there is a saying about great chefs,

“To make a simple dish is as diffi cult as ruling a nation.” Every ingredient has its personality, and Pham knows her ingredients.

A great meal would be incom-plete without dessert. All desserts are made in house by the same chef. The Chocolate Pyramid Mouse would be a choice for the chocolate lovers. It comes with the right bal-ance of chocolate, crème anglaise, and raspberry sauce. For those who prefer fruit, try the apple and pear torte with a crust that is fl uffy and buttery, yet light and not too sweet. I like to add a bit of ice cream to it. For an after dinner drink, I suggest you visit the upstairs lounge, which is also good for intimate rendezvous or an after-hours refuge.

Le Colonial has locations in San Francisco, Chicago, and New York. In New York it is located at 149 East 57th Street, between Lexington and 3rd Avenues.

Phone: (212) 752-0808, Fax: (212) 752-7534

Hours Of Operation

Lunch Monday—Friday 12:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.

DinnerSunday & Monday;5:30—11:00 p.m. Tuesday—Thursday;5:30—11:30 p.m. Friday & Saturday;5:30—12:00 a.m.

The second fl oor bar and lounge is open at 4:30 p.m. daily.

Lounge Menu Tuesday—Saturday;until 1:00 a.m. Sunday & Monday until 12:00 a.m.

Major credit cards acceptedReservations: recommendedDress Code: Formal and nice casualAppetizers: $10 to $14Entrees: $18 to $28

Multi talented Chef Xuan Pham. WEEKS/THE EPOCH TIMES

Pyramid and an oasis of Crème Anglaise. WEEKS/THE EPOCH TIMES

I had no idea fi sh could taste so good. WEEKS/THE EPOCH TIMES

It stands against time. WEEKS/THE EPOCH TIMES

FOOD FACT: Star AniseThat Marvelous SpiceEpoch Times Staff

During my formative years in Germany, star anise was the fl avor of choice to add to plum jams we cooked and preserved for the winter. The spice imparted the jam with a fragrant, licorice-like fragrance of which we were so fond. I have kept this family tradition since moving to the U.S., but have vastly enlarged my reper-toire for the use of this Asian spice, a plant belonging to the evergreen magnolia family.

The proper botanical name for star anise is illicium verum, and is known in China as ba jiao. Star anise is commercially grown in Southwest China and Vietnam and exported worldwide. What I have just learned, to my surprise, is that this spice is also the source for the medicine Tamifl u, so sought after at them moment, be-cause of the swine fl u scare. There was a brief shortage

of star anise in 2005, suffi ciently so, that it prompted Swiss Pharmaceutical Giant Roche to extract the active ingredient, shikimic acid, by fermenting E.coli bacte-ria. I have suffered harshly from the effects of E.coli; the thought this bacteria could cure anything is a bit bizarre. Nevertheless, Roche uses 90 percent of annual star anise harvest to make the fl u drug.

Chinese folklore believes that chewing the seeds from star anise could freshen breath, aid digestion and mini-mize the effects of certain types of arthritis. I prefer the use of star anise to impart a memorable fl avor to deli-cious foods. It plays a key role in the slow-cooked dishes that characterize Eastern Chinese cuisine. The licorice/anise fl avor enhances red cooked dishes, and is one of the ingredients in Chinese Five Spice powder. In slow cooked dishes, it is best to add star anise whole, not bro-ken into pieces, and to remove the spice before serving the dish. Store the spice at home in a sealed container, preferably in a cool, dark place, and it will last for sev-eral months