Having recently opened a new concept called Nish in the former March space, Chef Wayne Nish is busy sourcing exotic European, Asian and Middle Eastern ingredients to bring a novel experience to New York diners. This week on the Frog Blog, Nish checks in to share a few words on fusion. 

So, what have you got for us, Nish?

"A lot has been written about fusion cuisine in the last 20 years.  Much of it has not been very good.  Joyce Goldstein even called it “confusion”.  It’s true that a lot of young cooks seem to like the idea more than they know what to do with it.  Throwing a lot of things together just because they sound cool may not be the best way to go about it.

I came by it honestly.  I had Maltese, Italian, Japanese, Polish and Greek cooks in my immediate and extended family.  Family gatherings amounted to lessons in ethnic foods for a young, inquisitive mind.  I observed that a lot of ingredient substitutions needed to be made as certain authentic foods weren't available in NYC in the ‘50s and ‘60s.  So, as an adult I came to integrate those observations into my work.

Vernacular in language changes with vocabulary.  Syntax and grammar don't change.  Vocabulary is added every day.  Similarly, I see ingredients as the currency of change in modern cuisine.   New technique isn't introduced as often.  For years I let my palate guide my hands.  If I found a leafy green vegetable in Chinatown and didn't know its name that was OK.  I only needed to know what it tasted like and how to cook it.  Could I use it in place of spinach or kale or Swiss chard?  If I did would it inform an old dish with a new identity?  I've long thought so.  In fact, I was determined not to know the road signs so that I could continue unfettered by tradition.

When the first intrepid explorers returned to Europe from blazing the spice routes they didn't sell those new foods with recipe booklets.  People simply assimilated them into what they already knew.  So that’s how coriander seed found its way into German spice cakes, or paprika made its way into Hungarian food and cardamom became a part of Denmark’s food culture.  Tomatoes, peppers and potatoes came from South America, not Italy, Iberia and the British Isles. 

My new menu puts the ingredients that have long served as the backbone of what I do into the spotlight, highlighting them both on the menu and the accompanying glossary.  Some of the flavors are new and exciting, but many are strangely familiar.  You just might be surprised to find out that Chinese lop ch’ueng sausage tastes very much like a sweet coppa from Italy, or that Jinghua ham has a flavor profile almost identical to Springfield ham from Virginia.  Using the exotic to bring new meaning to the familiar is the underlying philosophy of my work at Nish."

Fighting off our youthful memories of unwanted bowls of borsht, we’ve arrived at a place that allows us to truly appreciate the hearty, nutrient-rich charms of the humble beet.

Though the youngest, most tender selections can be found from June through October, beets are a multi-seasonal root vegetable.  Beneath their tatty skin is a moist, magenta (or sometimes golden) flesh that has been tapped throughout the centuries to treat everything from fevers to bad breath.  When pickled, roasted juiced or simply peeled and grated, the vibrant flesh can lend a dose of natural sweetness and an earthy undertone to any dish.

Here are some of our favorite beet-based dishes this season!

A Voce

Roasted Beet Salad with hazelnut, gorgonzola dolce and barolo vinegar

Cookshop             

Marinated beets with strained yoghurt and fines herb salad

Sona

Chocolate Barbajuan filled with Beet and Ganache, Toasted Cinnamon Ice Cream, Beet Puree and Beet Chips

BLT Steak

Roasted Beets with aged goat cheese salad

Picholine

Foie Gras Torchon duck prosciutto and sweet and sour baby beets

We’re tired; tired of the wildly vacillating weather conditions, the subways that reroute without concern for our Tuesday morning staff meeting, and the workers jack hammering outside our window.  We need a nap and we’re willing to wager our weight in BLT Burgers that you could use one too.

Luckily, we’re just a stone’s throw from Yelo, a sanctuary of sleep and reflexology that opened this week to the delight of the cranky and fatigued throughout Manhattan.  At Yelo, 20, 30 and 40 minute naps are on offer (for $12, $18 and $24 respectively) as well as a range of reflexology treatments for hands, feet or ears.  Skeptical?  Well, if you haven’t napped since grade school, consider us your blaring alarm clock of reality.  Grab a blanket and turn the lights down low for:

10 Things You Never Knew About Sleep

1. 70% of employed Americans sleep six or less hours a night.

2. A 20-minute power nap can help a person maintain their alertness all day long. A NASA study showed that airline pilots who took planned, controlled 40-minute naps in the cockpit showed a 34% increase in performance and a 54% increase in alertness.

3. Drowsiness on the job costs U.S. businesses an estimated $18 billion a year in lost productivity.

4. The use of sleeping pills amongst 20 to 44 year olds doubled between 2000 and 2004.

5. In 2004, $2 billion was spent on the most popular sleeping pill, Ambien, worldwide. Global sales for all sleeping pills are expected to top $5 billion by 2008.

6. 52% of Americans do not sleep properly and are not getting the necessary amount of sleep for their bodies.

7. Between the hours of 2pm and 4pm, our normal biological rhythms dip.  A nap is a stopgap measure that can revive us enough to make proper use of the remaining work day.

8. You cannot “cheat” on the amount of sleep you get. No matter what anyone tells you, skimping on your hours of sleep is detrimental to physical and mental health.

9. Sleep is cumulative; if you lose sleep one day, you feel it the next. If you miss adequate sleep several days in a row, you build up a ‘sleep deficit,’ which can impair reaction time, judgment, vision, information processing, short-term memory, performance, motivation, vigilance and patience.

10. It is not true that the older you get, the fewer hours of sleep you need.  Sleep experts recommend a range of seven to nine hours of sleep for the average adult. While sleep patterns change as we age, the amount of sleep we need generally does not.

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Despite our best efforts, all New Year’s resolutions—more morning runs, less evening cocktails, more lean cuts, less prosciutto—all took a swan dive last night over a meal with new B&B client and sparkling dinner companion, Michael Ayoub of Cronkite Pizza.  Over a slice (err… four slices) of Ayoub’s ridiculously delicious pies and a tremendously quaffable Sardinian red, Ayoub and a team of well-fed Frogs talked pizza and wine.

So, if like us, you’re not quite ready to give up the indulgences of the year past, let your New Year’s resolutions slide but do it in the privacy of your own living room: Order a Cronkite pizza to-go, pick up the perfect wine and grab a movie on your way home.  Here’s a handy primer, straight from the mouth of “New York’s most trusted man in pizza” (NY Mag).

Eat: Margherita DOC with buffalo mozzarella

Drink: Chianti Classico

The bold flavor of a Chianti Classico is an ideal match for a highly flavorful food like pizza.  Classico indicates that the grapes (usually Trebbiano and Malvasia) are derived from their traditional growing region in Tuscany.  A splash of Ayoub’s Olio Santo (Holy Water), a spicy oil condiment, will further highlight the wine’s intrepid notes.