Immaculate Infatuation

Sister Hazel drummer Mark Trojanowski is as serious about the drumsticks he rocks with as he is about the drumsticks he eats. He's a first class gourmand and was nice enough to take some time out of his busy schedule to write a special guest review for us here at Immaculate Infatuation.

Sister Hazel, the Gainesville, Florida, rock five-piece, released their latest album, "Release," last month and entered the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart at #37, the band's highest charting position ever. The band devotes a lot of time connecting and communicating with their fans online via MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. All five band members update the feed regularly (@SisterHazelBand) and the band's list of Twitter followers has swelled to over 300,000 people, prompting twitter to label them as a "recommended" user.

Sister Hazel have logged over 3,500 live shows throughout the course of their career are continuously on the road. They play NYC on October 24th at The Fillmore @ Irving Plaza.

Band website: www.sisterhazel.com
MySpace: www.myspace.com/sisterhazel
Facebook: www.facebook.com/sisterhazel
Twitter: www.twitter.com/sisterhazelband

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Fabio Piccolo Fiore

230 East 44th St.
New York, NY 10007
212-922-0581
Official Website

I flew into New York this past week to do some press for my new record, and I invited several of the crew to go with me to have a nice dinner on our day off. I'd heard about a relatively new place on the East Side that served authentic Italian Cuisine and decided to try it out. The restaurant has several tables outside on the sidewalk for a nice New York evening, which is great because East 44th Street is not very busy with car or foot traffic. But the atmosphere inside is worth checking out too. About 10 steps below street level, the restaurant has a modern feel, but with definite Italian elements and great artwork.

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When I arrived, I had a drink at the bar with my crew guys until Bobby, the Maitre d', led us to our table. He listed off the specials for the evening and explained that Chef Fabio is always willing to accommodate the guests if they don't see what they like on the menu - all we had to do was ask. A very cool option: to have the chef make your favorite Italian dish or a combine a few things on the menu.

The food at Fabio Piccolo Fiore reminds of my trip to Rome. Everything is so authentic and the recipes seem as though they have been passed down from generation to generation. The dishes are very refined, plated beautifully and the portions will leave you feeling full. The pasta dishes are fresh and are not loaded down with thick, heavy sauces. The shellfish, clams and squid are all great and it is such a treat to have them prepared in an authentic Italian way: less is more.

The menu is very diverse and offers something for everyone - especially given the chef's willingness cook items that aren't on the menu. The wait staff was impeccable and the atmosphere was lively, modern and classy. For a restaurant of this caliber in Manhattan, the pricing is reasonable.

If you are looking for great authentic Italian food that has not been Americanized and a nice, quaint place to have a dinner date, then I would highly recommend going to Fabio Piccolo Fiore.

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Food Rundown:

Bruschetta
The chef sent out a crouton bruchetta amuse bouche to start. This hit the spot and worked perfectly well with the Chianti we ordered. The toasted crouton was amazing and the fresh tomatoes, herbs and cheese worked well to give it a bright, fresh flavor. I am glad he only sent one for each of us because I could have ruined my dinner eating a ton of those.

Crab Cake
Possibly the best crab cake I have ever tasted - not a pinch of breadcrumbs in this crab cake. Perfectly seasoned and cooked. I think the chef knows he has a winner here because there is no superfluous sauce to cover up a bad crab cake.

Misto di Nettuno (shrimp, octopus and squid)
This dish was excellent. The octopus and squid were like butter and the shrimp was delicious. Everything was mixed up in an olive oil, basil, garlic and salt mixture. It was so good that when I finished the fish, I committed the worst of etiquette faux pas: I used my bread to clean up the rest of the olive oil mixture. It was that good. Growing up as a kid in New York, I ate calamari cooked only in olive oil and garlic or marinara sauce. I can honestly say I don't think I ever had fried calamari in New York. I have missed calamari cooked like this greatly and this dish brought back so many great memories.

Cocktail Fabio (shrimp, crabmeat and oysters)
Wow this was awesome. I am a sucker for a raw bar spread. Some lemon and cocktail sauce with the right amount of horseradish, and I'm sold. Again, everything tasted fresh, and you could have fed me this plate all night. It was the perfect portion with three oysters and some shrimp with a pile of fresh crabmeat.

Classic Caesar Salad
A very good caesar salad. The one thing that I really liked about their caesar salad is that the dressing was not that typical heavy cream dressing. It was more of an oil based dressing that also did not have a strong anchovy taste. It had big pieces of shaved parmesan cheese and had awesome croutons like those from the bruschetta amuse bouche.

Arugula Salad
This was a nice salad. It had arugula, pears, walnuts with orange vinaigrette. I think if this salad had some goat cheese or crumbled blue cheese it would have taken it over the top. I am a sucker for cheese of all kinds though some people may have liked it as is.

Gnocchi alla Genovese
This might have been my favorite dish all night. I love fresh pasta dishes, and this one is special. It was fresh gnocchi tossed in fresh tomatoes, mozzarella and a light pesto sauce. The sauce was so light that you could probably take a gnocchi and put it on your napkin and you would not see much of anything there, which to me is awesome. I want to taste the potato and flour and not a sauce. The gnocchi were light and very moist and the tomatoes and mozzarella complimented them without overpowering the dish.

Veal Chop
I actually took the maitre d's advice and combined a few menu items. While the gnocchi is an entree, I asked for a small portion and had the veal chop as my entree. What a treat - perfectly cooked to medium rare and seasoned just right with a moderate dose of salt and pepper. It was garnished with broccoli and carrots, but for me it was all about the chop. I don't get to have veal chops too often because not many restaurants serve them. I love to cook myself, but veal chops and rack of lamb are so hard to cook right that I don't even try anymore - I just wait to order them out. If you have not had a veal chop, I would compare it to combining a great ribeye with a thick pork chop. You get all that flavor from the bone being on the meat, and you have that taste and texture that melt in your mouth.

Shrimp & Lobster Risotto alla Fabio
This was a huge dish that will definitely fill you up. The lobster was cooked to perfection, and, like all the shrimp dishes that we had earlier, these were seasoned well and tasted great. Risotto is very hard to make, especially a good one, and it takes a while to cook because you have to keep it on a low burner and slow cook it. It was a beautiful orange color - I suspect the result of shellfish broth, a touch of saffron or a combination of the two.

Seafood Special
This was one of the two entree specials. It had clams, crabmeat, lobster and calamari in a light, spicy red sauce over linguini. Again, the sauce was not thick or heavy, and it was more incorporated into the dish for flavoring. Everything worked well with this dish, and pasta was very fresh.