Posted by Erin Zimmer, July 10, 2008 at 5:00 PM
Photos from House Beautiful
Ina Garten has the reverse schedule of the average Manhattan apartment owner with a Hamptons summer estate—she spends most of her year "summering" on Long Island, while occasionally visiting the downtown duplex. On the Barefoot Contessa, we're so used to watching her shoe-less, strolling along the sand, but hardly get to see her urbanite side. House Beautiful magazine interviewed Garten and toured her 1920s one-bedroom apartment.
Inside, the ceilings are high, the kitchen is "tiny," and the Belgian couches have just the right amount of cushiness. "I'm short, so if a sofa is too deep I feel like a little girl with my feet sticking out. These are comfortable, but not too cushy," explained Garten. [Via Food Network Addict]
Posted by Adam Kuban, July 6, 2008 at 10:00 AM
Good morning, serious eaters. I'm thinking of having ham as part of my breakfast today. What about you?
This photo of artist Theo A. Rosenblum's Pig Meets Its Potential was sent to us by a reader. It's on exhibit at the 7Eleven Gallery at 711 Washington Street in New York City.
Posted by Raphael, June 2, 2008 at 9:30 AM
Photograph by vanillalattegirl
Michael Laiskonis, pastry chef at Le Bernardin, is back, blogging after a six-week hiatus (it feels much longer). He discusses the buzz around his elusive "Egg," a pastry dish composed of milk chocolate crème brûlée, caramel custard foam, sea salt, and caramel sauce served inside an egg—a dish not mentioned on the printed dessert menu and one reserved as a "special treat." Recently, after serving the "Egg" to First Lady Laura Bush and daughter Jenna, Laiskonis writes:
...I was a bit surprised when, upon leaving, the First Lady actually asked for the recipe. I guess, when the wife of the leader of the free world asks for the recipe of your signature dish, you fork it over (all personal politics aside). I initially thought it funny that my good friend and colleague Bill Yosses, now the White House pastry chef, might eventually find the recipe in his hands. Sure enough, according to Bill, at Mrs. Bush's request, he prepared my little "egg" at an Easter brunch at the White House.
Posted by Robyn Lee, February 22, 2008 at 1:45 PM
Joe DiStefano at Gothamist found liulan soo, flaky durian cream-filled pastries, at Chatham Square Restaurant in Manhattan's Chinatown. I would describe the flavor of durian as a mix of garlic and onion—not necessarily horrendous (although other people would disagree), nor something I'd dream about eating—but Joe highly recommends these pastries:
"It had a kinder, gentler flavor than fresh durian, which has a funky undertone that can linger for quite some time after one has swallowed the last creamy bit. In fact the green and yellow treats were so tasty that almost as soon as the first plate was finished another was ordered."
As Chinese cuisine isn't known for excelling in the "desserts" department, I think I have to try these for myself.
Chatham Square Restaurant
Address: 6 Chatham Square, New York NY 10038 (map)
Phone: 212-587-8811
You don't have to go to the outer boroughs to get those hard-to-find ingredients. The New York Times rounds up ethnic food markets in Manhattan, to get everything from Brazilian coffee to British sausages.
Posted by Robyn Lee, January 18, 2008 at 11:30 AM
The Crosby Connection, the go-to sandwich spot in New York City's NoHo neighborhood, is about to lose its lease on February 1. A lease on a kitchen the size of a closet. Out of this narrow 45-square-foot space, owner Joey Cramarossa and his employees churn out awesome sandwiches for $5 to $7. These sandwiches have cheaply filled my belly many times during my lunch breaks; it'd be a shame if future students and workers in the NoHo area were unable to experience the same sandwich-induced joy.
Head over to An Error Occured While Processing This Directive for more pictures, a petition, and information on what else you can do to help save this little sandwich shop.
UPDATE: Crosby Connection isn't going to disappear—Joey plans on opening a new restaurant just a few blocks away. [via Eater]
Posted by Zach Brooks, January 16, 2008 at 1:00 PM
Today's Serious Sandwich post feels like one of those crossover comic books events, like the time Spiderman showed up in Daredevil. I don't normally write about sandwiches from Midtown Manhattan (I leave that stuff for my blog Midtown Lunch), but I had a sandwich for lunch on Monday that to not share with you would be a disservice to Serious Eaters everywhere. I found it while researching a piece for Midtown Lunch at Tina's Restaurant, a fast food Cuban place that I not only had no intention of eating at, but I wouldn't even consider a NYC destination or even the best Cuban food in Midtown. But then I saw it—the fried pork sandwich, with fried plantains (or as I like to call it, the "You top what with what?!?"). After spotting the sandwich on the menu, considering the consequences of my actions (I had plans to eat Cuban food with friends for dinner), I was forced to use the excuse that this wonderful column has afforded me on so many occasions: "I have to order and eat the sandwich. It's for work."
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Posted by Erin Zimmer, December 18, 2007 at 5:15 PM
It's a fusion tradition that ain't on swanky menus but is very rooted in America's melting pot culture. Just think of cream cheese wontons (right), Soy Vay products, and how many Peking Dragons are open on Christmas. This dude [video] knows what I'm talking about. It's a curious overlap, but this post on the New York Times City Room blog went where few other Jewish-Chinese fusions have gone before.
Pastrami egg rolls and Chinese hot dogs, available at Eden Wok on 34th Street in Manhattan.
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Calling all Survivor fans: Courtney Yates may not have been crowned the sole Survivor on last night's finale, but if you'd like to the see the first runner-up model/waitress and self-proclaimed "world's biggest b----h" serving food instead of trying to win challenges for it, grab a table at the Coffee Shop in Union Square. According to a recent interview with the guys over at Grub Street, she once received a $250 tip from Taye Diggs. It may not be a million dollar prize, but perhaps her newfound fame will bring in more big tips à la Taye.
Posted by Adam Kuban, November 26, 2007 at 1:45 PM
Now that the weather's cold, the Serious Eats staff has been eating a lot of soup from The Soup Spot.
And it's not just us. During lunchtime and well beyond, there's routinely a line for this tiny takeout place nestled within a parking garage on West 31st Street. The scene is somewhat reminiscent of the "Soup Nazi" on Seinfeld except that the people here are actually nice—with no discernible sacrifice in efficiency or quality.
The wide range of soups, stews, and chowders are made with good-quality vegetables and from chicken, pork, and beef that the joint advertises as free-range and antibiotic-free. As I type this, I'm eating a deliciously creamy chicken and dumpling soup, and our web developer, Raphael, is eating a split pea soup (though he says his favorite is the Maryland crab bisque, "but they haven't had it in a while.")
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Frank Bruni goose-eggs Harry Cipriani, "a bizarre mix of indulgence and deprivation."
Posted by Ed Levine, September 26, 2007 at 6:45 PM
We hope Frank Bruni won't feel threatened by Bill O'Reilly's stunning review of well-known Harlem restaurant Sylvia's. Take a listen, Frank. O'Reilly's willfully ignorant observations about African-American culture in general show just how uninformed he is about anything outside his own narrow set of experiences. O'Reilly was amazed that eating at Sylvia's was just like eating at an Italian restaurant. That is astonishing, Bill.
Posted by Ed Levine, August 15, 2007 at 1:00 PM
I know it's all sliders all the time in the food media these days, and I don't mean to jump on the bunwagon, but I feel compelled to post about the scary good, extremely serious meatball sliders I had at the Little Owl last night. Chef Joey Campanaro combines ground veal, pork, and beef; fennel; panko (Japanese breadcrumbs); and pecorino Romano cheese to impossibly delicious effect. The house-made cheese garlic roll doesn't hurt, either.
They come three to an order, perfect for sharing, though after your first bite, you won't want to. The recipe for these bad boys, minus the house-made buns, is in this month's Bon Appétit. I pondered making some at home, but it turns out these suckers are hard to replicate.
Little Owl
Address: 90 Bedford Street, New York NY 10014
Phone: 212-741-4695
Photograph from beurremanie on Flickr
Posted by Ed Levine, August 6, 2007 at 2:30 PM
Porter House New York: A steakhouse with a chef back where he belongs. Photograph courtesy of Jason Perlow
Steakhouses don't usually have chefs in charge. For example, who's the chef at Peter Luger? Or Gene and Georgetti in Chicago? Or the Pacific Dining Car in Los Angeles? I don't know, and I am willing to wager a steak dinner at Luger that nobody else does either. That's because steakhouses are traditionally not chef-driven; they're prime, preferably dry-aged meat and perfectly golden hash-brown-potato driven.
Although celebrity chefs have gotten into the steakhouse game (because they love red meat and love developing concepts that can be cloned and yield profits with minimal oversight), I can think of only one serious chef at a high-end steakhouse who runs the kitchen or is at the broiler nearly every night. And that one chef is Michael Lomonaco at Porter House New York.
I have had half a dozen meals at Porter House and have spotted Lomonaco there each time. When the restaurant opened less than a year ago, the food was not nearly as good as it is now, and the reviews reflected that.
But each meal I've had there has been successively better, and the meal I had there last week might have been one of the best steakhouse meals I have ever had.
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Posted by Ed Levine, July 30, 2007 at 9:45 AM
Last Wednesday, I was at the Union Square Greenmarket when I was waylaid by Andrew Carmellini, the chef-partner at A Voce.
"Hey, Ed. Can you give us a hand with our stuff?" I said sure and loaded the four boxes and two bags of produce into a cab along with Carmellini and two of the cooks at the restaurant. We took the cab to 27th and Park, and then we schlepped the boxes one block to the restaurant. By this time, it was 11:45 a.m. and A Voce was about to open for lunch. When in A Voce, or should I say Rome, I said to myself, so I decided to have a bowl of pasta. Although Carmellini first became known to the culinary world as the opening chef at Café Boulud, he is one of my favorite pasta cooks (which is a good thing, since A Voce is first and foremost an Italian restaurant).
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Posted by Erin Zimmer, July 23, 2007 at 2:25 PM
Does getting too big for your chef pant's britches imply an eventual move to New York City? Apparently so for one of Washington's leading chefs, Fabio Trabocchi, who publicly revealed Friday that he's leaving Maestro at the Tysons Corner Ritz Carlton in McLean, Virginia—one of the area's most lauded kitchens—to become a chef-partner of SoHo's sexy Fiamma Osteria, part of Steve Hanson's mega B.R. Guest Restaurant Group.
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