When Danny visited Eton in Brooklyn, New York, he witnessed one of the most beautiful sights known to food-loving man: a tray of plump, freshly made dumplings. Read more about the dumplings at Danny's blog, Food in Mouth.
Still from 'Feed Me: Brooklyn' episode 8.
"Charming, young, single Brooklynite looking for that attractive and interesting special someone who shares passion for food and cooking. Confident and takes charge in the kitchen." If this sounds like right for you or anyone you know, they might be a good candidate for Feed Me: The Brooklyn Cooking Dating Show, a new online dating show for foodies in Brooklyn. The show pairs up Brooklyn singles that share a penchant for good eats, and has one make dinner for the other at the warm and cozy Brooklynphoto Studio kitchen in Williamsburg:
"It's about as non-creepy as you can get. It's all about food and conversation. Think 'My Dinner with Andre,' except it's you, and someone foody, smart and hot. You get to be yourself in the kitchen—the place where you feel most yourself. We have expert Yentas to do the matchmaking. The kitchen is beautiful, and well-equipped. We do the shopping. We do the dishes. All you have to do is cook.
So how's the matchmaking been? Unfortunately there's currently only one episode online, although filming has been going on since April. Brooklyn Based has mentioned that "there have been sparks between more than one couple" in future episodes, so stay tuned.
Feed Me will continue to post casting calls and more episodes throughout the summer, so submit your profile if you're in the area and lookin' to find a little something more over pork chops and wine. [via Brooklyn Based]
After the closing of this pet food store on Prospect Park West in Windsor Terrace/Park Slope, Brooklyn, a surprise was found behind its fading painted sign and wooden boards: a beautiful stained glass sign from an old, possibly 1930s-era sweets shop. Hopefully it will get cleaned up and actually be turned into a store that sells candy, soda, and ice cream—or at least, the sign won't be covered up again.
Photograph taken by Jason Santa Maria
It can be hard to find a good source of milk juice these days, but head over to Bridge Apothecary in Brooklyn and you can get all the milk juice you could ever want! I mean, just look at how authoritative that sign is. To me it doesn't just say, "WE NOW SELL MILK JUICE"—it screams, "YOU WANT TO BUY OUR MILK JUICE!"
Not long ago, the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission began a program to outfit all yellow cabs with a backseat multifunction TV screen, one that can track the cab's location with GPS, show up-to-the-minute weather reports, and broadcast clips from local news shows. I kind of hate these screens because they make me nauseated (as does reading in cars), but the other day when I happened to see a short clip from ABC news about a local ricotta cheese making operation, I just had to watch.
I'm on the NYCfoodbloggers list, which is a great resource for finding out about all sorts of interesting events and items that often fly under the radar. A few months back, the list administrator, Danielle of Habeas Brulée, floated the notion among fellow food bloggers of leasing a space to start a free-form restaurant where different food bloggers would take turns cooking on different nights. It stemmed from her interest in cooking for the public here and there, just not full-time.
Fast-forward to today, when an email with an update about her idea appeared in my in-box:
Jack is an occasional restaurant, by which we mean that it is only occasionally in existence. We are open for one seating per night at 7 p.m. on Saturday nights, every other week or so. Our fixed multicourse tasting menu changes each time. Menus are posted in advance on this site, BYOB, and reservations are absolutely required. You can find the complete list of dates when Jack will be open in 2008 here. Our cuisine is eclectic, innovative, and very tasty.
Address: In the Brooklyn Lyceum, 227 Fourth Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11215 (Park Slope, at Union Street)
Website: jackrestaurant.com
Cost: $75 a ticket
Photograph courtesy of Peter Cunnigham
Gotham foodies can rest easy. The Parks Department has finally decided the fate of the wildly popular Latin-American food vendors who sell some serious eats to soccer players and fans during the warmer months.
There is an ice cream shop en route to the elementary school I used to attend called the Bubbling Brook. We used to stop there on many an afternoon, the entire carpool spilling out of the minivan to line up for what "The Bub" did best: rainbow sherbet (heavy on the raspberry), or a chocolate-vanilla twist with chocolate dip, which inevitably cracked and dripped down faces and shirts and onto leather-upholstered backseats. But the Bub was a seasonal place, and I can still taste the bitterness of the disappointment—just as clearly as I can the sweetness of that sherbert—of the day when we drove by only to find that it had closed for the winter, the windows through which the ice cream passed firmly shuttered against the long, cold months ahead.
I'm more of a mocha-chip girl these days, but I still feel a little twinge of sadness around this time of year at the sight of so many shops shutting down until spring. When it comes to ice cream, why must we be fair-weather friends? Surely I'm not the only one who would splurge on a cone on a snowy day or stop in for a pint to eat later, under the covers with a mug of hot chocolate. And think of all the missed seasonal flavor opportunities: cranberry-gingersnap or kumquat-eggnog swirl.
The blog Porkchop Express reports on the latest hurdle that the Red Hook soccer field food vendors have run up against. This time it's not the parks commission but the department of health, which has some issues with the set-up:
Foremost amongst these: no running water at the fields. So today (Tuesday) at 5:15 pm, Cesar was contacted about a “big” meeting Wednesday with the Deputy Commissioner of Health. Pressure has intensified, City Officials are again flexing muscle, and the implied bottom-line is rough. Worst-case scenario, the Vendors will have to shut down operations stat to comply with DOH mandates. But we wont know anything until [Wednesday] afternoon.
If you are serious about sausage and in New York City this weekend, you should get yourself to Brooklyn tomorrow to eat some sausages and commemorate the passing of two sausage pioneers, Bob Evans and Ralph F. Stayer, founder of Johnsonville Sausage. From the event's organizer, Sam Lee:
...For many of us, particularly those with roots in the Midwest, these men were not just sausage makers, they were, and are, icons.
This Saturday, June 30th please join us as we give tribute to both men by grilling up some of the delicious foods they created. Moonshine has graciously offered up their back patio and grills for the event. Starting at 5 PM, we will provide Johnsonville Brats and Bob Evans Sausages as long as supplies last.
Please RSVP to sausagememorial@hotmail.com so we can be sure to have enough food for all. Donations will gladly be accepted to cover costs and any profits will be donated to charity in the name of Bob Evans and Ralph F. Stayer.
I emailed Sam back to find out more about her connection to these sausage makers. Her reply follows...
The vendors at the Red Hook ball fields in Brooklyn have been granted at least a temporary reprieve in their battle to keep the concession license at the soccer fields that have brought them at least some measure of justified fame.
This means that the great Latino food we have talked about will now be served until October 28, the end of the soccer league season.
Previously the New York City Parks Department had threatened to yank the delicious food vendors' permit on September 7.
Our well-placed source, who spoke to us on condition of anonymity, says that this decision can only be seen as a show of good faith on the part of the Parks Department as the two sides work amicably toward a long-term solution.
Related
New York Senator Chuck Schumer Makes Goat Tacos Good Politics
savesoccertacos.blogspot.com
The call came Friday morning as I was leaving the house. "Ed Levine, this is Sam Schaeffer from Senator Chuck Schumer's office. Tomorrow afternoon at 1:00 p.m. the senator is having a press conference at the Red Hook Soccer Fields to lend his support to the current food vendors. We would like you to come out and say a few words in support of these vendors."
"I'll be there,' I stammered into the phone. After all, we had posted two days before about what serious eaters could do to support the thirteen immigrant families who have been cooking delicious Latino food at the Red Hook soccer fields for the last thirty years.
I arrived at the soccer fields at 12:30. With a half-hour to kill I had time to hit two or three vendors before Senator Schumer and I, along with vendor manager Cesar Fuentes, the local state senator, and A Voce chef-partner Andrew Carmellini were to address the media. I had a pork and cheese huarache the size of my forearm. Excellent. I had a pork and cheese pupusa and ended up tallking to a Ben Benson waiter who was a Red Hook Soccer Fields regular. I was about to head over to the goat taco stand when my cell phone rang. "Ed, it's Sam Schaeffer. The press conference is about to begin." The goat tacos would have to wait.
It's at once amazing and not all that surprising that the Red Hook ball fields in Brooklyn are getting so much attention from New York City food lovers. From bloggers to anonymous activists to chefs, everyone agrees: The place is a culinary treasure and needs to be preserved.
I love that Save Soccer Tacos sprang up, complete with a sample message that it suggests sending to New York City Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe and City Councilwoman Sara M. Gonzalez, whose 38th District includes the ball fields.
I hate that the Parks Department website makes you use a black hole of a form to email Commissioner Benepe, so with a little digging, we found direct email addresses to ping him at: adrian.benepe@parks.nyc.gov
Here's some body text, based on the Save Soccer Tacos message, that you can copy and paste into your email to Commissioner Benepe. (Add you name and send as-is, or for a more effective plea, personalize it with what the ball fields mean to you.)
Dear Commissioner Benepe,
Please extend the Temporary Use Agreement to the vendors at the Red Hook ball fields. They are a unique resource in the city, are one of the best things about summer in Brooklyn, and they are irreplaceable.
The vendors bring value to Red Hook by bringing people out to eat who might otherwise not visit the neighborhood, and they create an experience and a range of real, honest food that typical park vendors could not possibly replicate.
I'm asking you to please grant them an extension for this year and to look for a way to make the use agreement permanent.
This is a cultural institution worth saving!
Sincerely,
YOUR NAME HERE
Photograph from Peter Cunningham
Josh Ozersky reports on Grub Street that the food concession contract at the Red Hook ball fields in Brooklyn are going to be put up for bidding by the city this fall and that the last day to eat the terrific grub found there will be September 7.
This, my friends, should not be allowed to happen. The Red Hook ball fields, where Latino families put up makeshift restaurants serving real, honest food of their home countries, is one of the last bastions of real food to be found in New York City. If it's replaced by a series of dirty water dog carts, a sausage-and-pepper stand, or some generic high bidder, it would be a travesty.
Serious Eats is going to start a petition to try to get the city to see the madness inherent in this misguided notion. Apparently the parks commissioner should be the object of our attention. Mr. Commissioner, you will be hearing from us.
Photograph from my friend Peter Cunningham
I had an old issue of Food & Wine on my desk, and, leafing through it, I came upon a story about wine shops serving cheese and tapas. As a confirmed nondrinker and serious cheese lover, I applaud this trend.
Here are the shops they wrote about:
Smith & Vine
Address: 268 Smith Street, Brooklyn NY 11231
Phone: 718-243-2864
Stinky Brooklyn
Address: 261 Smith Street, Brooklyn NY 11231
Phone: 718-522-7425
Silverlake Wine
Address: 2395 Glendale Boulevard, Los Angeles CA 90039
Phone: 323-662-9024
Cesar
Address: 4039 Piedmont Avenue, Oakland CA 94611
Phone: 510-985-1200
Portalis
Address: 5205 Ballard Avenue, Seattle WA 98107
Phone: 206-783-2007
We've got both coasts covered. Any Serious Eaters know of any others?
Photograph from iStockphoto.com
This Serious Eats stuff I've gotten myself into is a weird business. Blogging about pizza, burgers, and other food is now part of my job, so it wasn't out of the realm of the ordinary to take part of the day to go out to Di Fara Pizza, in the Midwood section of Brooklyn, New York.
The joint had just reopened after having a nasty run-in with the New York City Department of Health. (I wrote about the closing on Serious Eats in mid March.) The DOH smackdown wasn't pretty. Along with minor violations like failure to wear a hat and gloves, references to mouse poop and unsanitary conditions peppered the report.
But, a couple weeks of forced closure, the pizzeria's proprietor, Dom DeMarco, was back behind the counter, looking and acting a little peppier for the involuntary rest—greeting regulars in his trademark laconic way and accepting well-wishes from customers with a quick nod.
Noooooo!!!!!!
Slice reader Gabriel S. just emailed me: "Went by Di Fara looking for a slice today and saw that they were shut by the board of health yesterday. Do you have any details?"
I just called Dom DeMarco proprietor of legendary Brooklyn pizzeria Di Fara. He was at the restaurant, and he confirms that the Department of Health has closed the place "for little things."
"They say I've gotta wear gloves now—and a hat," Mr. DeMarco said. "It's all little things, like everybody else."
Despite the crap news, Dom seemed pretty chipper, taking things in stride. "I'd only wear a hat if I were bald. I'd rather pay the fine than wear the hat."
Mr. DeMarco estimates he'll be open again for business by Tuesday.
"I think it's their way of forcing me to take a little break," he said, jokingly.
Related: Latex Gloves in the Professional Kitchen? from the Serious Eats Talk section.
Photograph by Adam Kuban, Serious Eats
Chinese New Year and the year of the pig according to the Chinese zodiac, begins this Sunday, February 18. Because Chinese New Year is tied to the lunar calendar, it falls on a different date every year, usually between January 19 and February 23. It begins on the second new moon after the winter solstice and ends 15 days later with the Lantern Festival. According to tradition, the celebration gets under way on New Year's Eve with a family dinner hosted at the eldest family member's home; it is considered the most important annual family tradition. Family members travel from near and far to attend. A family's given menu will vary by region, but here are some of the more popular dishes and their symbolism:
Here is the second episode of what we've taken to calling "Edibles" around Serious Eats world headquarters. In this video, I talk to Adam Kuban, Serious Eats managing editor—and founder of SliceNY.com—about the lines at Di Fara Pizza. My friend Robb Walsh visited Di Fara while in town recently and confirms tales of two-hour waits there. Two hours!
On a foray into Red Hook, Brooklyn, on Saturday with Mike, my serious grapehead brother, I dropped into wine and spirits shop LeNell’s (416 Van Brunt Street, 877-NO-SNOBS). Mike knows a lot about wine, and he’s spent more than 25 years unsuccessfully trying to get me interested in the stuff. So when I told him that LeNell’s was a really cool place, he was skeptical. After all, he knows how little I know about wine. Then Mike spotted half-bottles of Barolos (Roagna's La Rocca e La Pira) at $27, which he said was an excellent price. One conversation with LeNell, the gracious, unpretentious owner, and he is now a serious devotee of the shop. Here is serious eater and brother Mike’s take on LeNell’s. —Ed Levine
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