Posted by Ed Levine, May 10, 2008 at 11:00 AM
I asked some of my food critic friends and some of the correspondents from around Serious Eats where they would recommend taking your mom on Mother's Day. Intel poured in from around the country. And I added my own picks, too.
Atlanta
John Kessler, food columnist and feature writer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, says:
We're going to Watershed, which has a great, often overlooked brunch with cream biscuits, lard biscuits, toad in the hole, poached eggs with spinach and country ham, house-cured salmon, candied bacon. 406 West Ponce De Leon Avenue, Decatur GA 30030; 404-378-4900; watershedrestaurant.com
A nice new choice might be Parish, a very cool-looking New Orleans cooking spot in an old bleach factory in one of the suddenly new in-town nabes that was all crack houses and kudzu just a couple of years ago. It had a fine roast beef debris sandwich with mustard and pickles, but I think Mother's Day brunch is more. 240 North Highland Avenue, Atlanta GA 30307; 404-681-4434; parishatl.com
[After the jump, some serious recommendations from D.C., Dallas, Chicago, New York, and L.A. that are worthy of that special lady in your life.]
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Posted by Adam Kuban, March 13, 2008 at 4:30 PM
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.
Jack Restaurant
Address: In the Brooklyn Lyceum, 227 Fourth Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11215 (Park Slope, at Union Street)
Website: jackrestaurant.com
Cost: $75 a ticket
Posted by Adam Kuban, March 10, 2008 at 3:30 PM
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.
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
Posted by Robyn Lee, January 23, 2008 at 6:30 PM
What is banana cream pie besides my most favorite pie in the universe? Just a combination of four of the best things on Earth: buttery pie crust, bananas, thick vanilla pudding, and a heavy dose of fluffy whipped cream. That's a little piece of stomach-crushing heaven right there.
I once went to Billy's Bakery for dessert after eating dinner at Grand Sichuan with Kathy. Despite that we felt like our stomachs were going to explode and/or burn away from stuffing ourselves with hot Sichuanese food, we proceeded to dig into a hulking slice of their banana cream pie. The plastic plate it came on was barely strong enough to support the pie's heft. Each forkful of crust, banana chunk, creamy vanilla pudding and freshly whipped cream that we swallowed was like a stab to our digestives systems, but the combination was too perfect to resist. Sometimes you just have to eat through the pain.
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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 Jenn Sit, January 4, 2008 at 3:00 PM
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Late-night dining is what New York City is all about. What makes it "the city that never sleeps" is the fact that there's always someplace open to eat at any hour. On the weekends, in the wee hours of the morning, most night-owls are just looking for a pre-emptive strike against a hangover (I'd recommend two Gray's Papaya dogs and a Nalgene full of water). What you realize the next morning when you wake up from that gluttonous bender is that you have a food-hangover—not hungry until 2 p.m. and wondering how eating that many hot dogs seemed like such a great idea. Whether you're starving after seeing a late show or you've got the midnight munchies, we've got the eats for you.
This week we're checking out the classic nocturnal nosh spots in New York City's East Village, a neighborhood that is the epitome of cheap delicious late-night dining.
We've made a grease trail from Second Avenue to East Houston, so check out the digs after the jump.
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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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Posted by Zach Brooks, October 10, 2007 at 12:45 PM
Photograph from The Flooz on Flickr
With few exceptions, most food at outdoor concerts is terrible, leaving music lovers to stuff themselves beforehand or pack a portable picnic. Nothing is more portable than a sandwich, and this past weekend, one of my Flickr friends found the perfect sandwich for a pre–Arcade Fire picnic on Randall's Island in New York: the Rosino Panino, picked up from Sorriso Italian Pork Store in Astoria, Queens.
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Posted by Ed Levine, October 3, 2007 at 7:32 AM
I lived in Los Angeles for a few years and have often gone there for business, but until I read Jennifer Steinhauer's article in the New York Times, I had no idea that it had become the grilled cheese (fancy-pants and otherwise) capital of the U.S. and maybe the world. She describes the grilled cheese sandwich in L.A. as "an object of outright mania." She makes it sound as if grilled cheese sandwiches are the closest thing Los Angelenos have to their own organized religion. But I, too, am a grilled cheese maniac, and I figure a lot of you are, so today I am soliciting entries for the Serious Eats Grilled Cheese Honor Roll. Why?
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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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Posted by Adam Kuban, July 20, 2007 at 10:00 AM
The chef's table—where you sit in or very near the kitchen to get a bird's eye view of the proceedings while a special meal is cooked for you—is a concept many serious food lovers find appealing. ForbesTraveler.com gives its list of the nine best examples in the U.S.
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Posted by Ed Levine, July 18, 2007 at 3:00 PM
With the good neighborhood Chinese restaurant something of an endangered species, I am happy to report that the Grand Sichuan International on 24th Street and Ninth Avenue (212-620-5200) is still turning out first-rate, moderately priced food. GSI is a mini-chain that periodically gets the "gone downhill" reports from diners, but based on Monday night's meal, the food at 24th and Ninth at least is, if anything, going uphill. Here's what we had last night, with nary a loser in the bunch:
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Posted by Ed Levine, June 13, 2007 at 7:58 AM
In today's New York Times Chairman Bruni confirms in hilarious fashion what most Serious Eaters already know and love about food in restaurants these days, namely, that fat rules. Though he did hit many of the fat-centric highlights in New York eating, like Resto, Momofuku Ssäm Bar, and the Spotted Pig, he failed to mention a few of my favorites (both classic and new) listed after the jump. What are your favorite fatty dishes?
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Posted by Ed Levine, June 8, 2007 at 3:42 PM
First of all congratulations to our Serious Eats Big Apple Barbecue Block Party Bubba Pass Plus Winners. See you both this weekend. There are so many pitmasters and other food and drink booths I thought the Serious Eats community could use some 'cue guidance so that you maximize your eating pleasure when you do go. Now I must admit that I have not tried every pitmaster's cue as of this moment. But I can give you my list of Five Fave "'Cue" Booths so that you can be certain that even if you didn't purchase a Bubba Pass, the time you'll spend on these particular lines will be well worth it:
Big Bob Gibson's Championship Pork Shoulder, Pitmasters Chris Lilly and Don McLemore: Let's face it, most of us might not ever make it to Decatur, Alabama to visit the Big Bob Gibson mothership, so a wait on this line is a must. Flat out, the best pork shoulder sandwich you will ever taste.
17th Street Bar & Grill and Championship Bar-B-Q Baby Back Ribs, Murphysboro, Illinois, Marion, IL, and Las Vegas, Nevada: Mike Mills, pitmaster. Mike Mills may be as good a yarn spinner as he is a pitmaster, and that's saying something, because his dry rub baby back ribs will make you cry they are so good.
Southside Market & BBQ Beef Brisket & Sausage & Pickles & Onions, Elgin, Texas: Bryan Bracewell, Pitmaster: Bryan Bracewell's smoked beef sausage is so delicious and so juicy I'm convinced the man is secretly a dry cleaning and laundromat magnate. Wear an already stained t-shirt to save yourself the worry.
Mitchell's Whole Hog and Cole Slaw, Wilson, NC, Ed Mitchell, Pitmaster: Until you've had one of Ed Mitchell's incomparably delicious Eastern Carolina whole hog barbecue sandwiches, with its little crispy shards of skin and bits of meat from all over the pig, you haven't really lived. Really.
Stehling Brothers Fried Pies, John Stehling, Early Girl Eatery, Asheville, NC and Robert Stehling, Hominy Grill, Charleston, SC. I've never really embraced the idea of eating dessert at the BABBP, but these guys are serious food people, so I have to believe that their fried pies are going to be killer.
This is not to say that everything else at the Block Party is not up to snuff. I'm just trying to make sure you maximize your barbecue and fried pie pleasure this weekend.
Happy "Cue Hunting. http://www.bigapplebarbecue.com
[photographs taken by Lia]
Posted by Ed Levine, May 29, 2007 at 8:40 AM
We drove back home from Cape Cod on Sunday, and my rental car wasn't due back until Tuesday, so I found myself with a car and a window of opportunity for a little food adventure on Memorial Day afternoon. My son, Will, and I decided to grab a slice at Sal & Carmine's, the fine pizzeria on 102nd and Broadway that doesn't deliver. We walked in, I checked out the slice pie on the counter, and I knew all was right with the world.
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Posted by Ed Levine, May 15, 2007 at 9:20 PM
Anthos is more than just a restaurant to its chef-owner Mike Psilakis. It's a cause. It's his chance to show the food world that Greek food and a Greek restaurant can be good enough and important enough to get three stars from Frank Bruni of the New York Times. I spoke to Psilakis ten minutes before the review appeared: "We gave it our best shot. I was here every time he came in, and the service and the food was as good as we can make it. He didn't get cheated. He seemed to like the food. I just hope Bruni understands how much this restaurant is part of my soul, I hope he understands how much of me is on every plate." I said that Bruni seems to try to get under the hood, that he tries to see beyond the individual plates of food. "I hope so, I hope so., Ed."
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Posted by Ed Levine, May 11, 2007 at 1:24 PM
It's sort of a blogging triple play, but what the hell. Serious Eats friend Ganda Suthivarakom linked on Eat, Drink, One Woman, to another blog Jozzard, which had a not very appetizing photo of what sounds like an incredibly delicious dish they both had at Amazing 66, a newish Chinese restaurant in New York: "it was essentially a hollowed-out chicken, deep fried, then stuffed with rice and sausage. So there was no actual chicken in the chicken." That last sentence could have been a Yogi Berra-ism, but this chickenless chicken sure sounds good.
Amazing 66
Address: 66 Mott Street, New York NY 10013
Phone: 212-334-0099
Posted by Ed Levine, May 5, 2007 at 4:36 PM
On Wednesday Serious Eater Lia posted about Grom, an Italian gelateria concern opening its first U.S. store on Saturday the 5th of May. What Lia didn't tell all of you is that Grom is a mere 50 yards from my house.
When I left my house at 10:30 on Saturday morning there was already a short line to get into Grom, which was opening at 11. When I returned five hours later, the line was longer—much longer, a full city block long in fact. I noticed a friend, Mindy, standing with her significant other midway through the line. I asked her how long she had been waiting in line: 45 minutes, she said. "The gelato is free," Mindy said. Ah, yes, combine a little New York Times hype and the promise of free, artisanally made ice cream, and you have the makings of a long line in Gotham.
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Posted by Alaina Browne, April 24, 2007 at 2:30 PM
While we were busy enjoying Singapore Day, we missed out on Taste of Chinatown. Thankfully, plenty of other food bloggers were in attendance to partake in the $1 and $2 tasting plates.
Off the Broiler: "... packed with people and lots of tasty $1 and $2 small plates, making Chinatown a gigantic dim sum parlor."
eat 2 love experiences a "duckgasm" and discovers what might be the best deal of the whole event, "duck bone" (the remaining, whole duck carcass) for $2.
The Porkchop Express gives Peking House's peking duck another vote.
The Beet Goes On describes her moment of essential New York.
Photograph from the Porkchop Express
Posted by Ed Levine, November 15, 2006 at 9:46 AM
What's the best piece of pie you've ever eaten?
Karen Barker, pastry chef and co-owner of the Magnolia Grill, 1002 Ninth Street, 919-286-3609, Durham, NC), makes the best pies I've ever eaten. Karen made all the pies for a pie breakfast at a Barbecue Conference I went to a few years ago In Oxford, Mississippi, and I'm afraid I singlehandedly decimated her supply of pies. She wrote a terrific cookbook a few years ago, and tomorrow or the next day I will put her pie recipe up on Ed Levine Eats.
In New York, as I mentioned yesterday, my two favorite pie bakers are Two Little Red Hens (1112 8th Ave. (11th St.), Park Slope, 718-499-8108, 1652 2nd Ave. (85th St.) 212-452-0476, and Yura & Company, 1650 Third Ave. (92nd St.),212-860-8060. If you haven't ordered your pies for Thanksgiving this year, and you live in New York, get your pies from one of these places.
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Posted by Ed Levine, May 25, 2006 at 7:32 AM
Having just come from a thoroughly disappointing meat at NY's latest attempt at a clam shack, Ditch Plains, I began to ruminate on how much I love fried clams.
With Memorial Day, the official start of the fried clam eating season, just around the corner, here is my absolutely incomplete guide to eating fried clams in the NYC area, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, with a southern Maine spot thrown in for good measure.
The descriptions of the clams themselves will be minimal. As I discovered a couple of years ago when I went on a ten clamshack eating adventure with Dave Pastnernack, the chef of Esca, fried clams are either really good (sweet, nutty, crisp and greaselessly fried with no breading other than flour) or they're not. And even the best clam shacks don't put enough salt into the frying mixture. One more important note: I've found that if you ask that the clams be put on a plate instead of one of those impossibly cute cardboard clam boxes, the result is clams that stay crisp and crunchy. Those "cute" boxes are actually a dastardly form of fried clamicide, because the fried clams end up steamed and soggy when they're piled on top of each other. And no fried clam meal is complete without an ice cream or frozen custard for dessert. Even bad ice cream tastes great after eating fried clams.
NYC and vicinity:
- Mary's Fish Camp: Mary Redding is a highly trained serious chef, so it's no surprise that her fried clams are excellent, crunchy and clammy and delicious. Will somebody who's been to the Brooklyn location of MFC please let us know how it is? {246 W. 4th Street, New York, NY}. 646-486-2185.
- Pearl: They don't ordinarily have fried clams at Pearl, but the fried oysters are so good I keep hoping they'll get around to frying up some clams as well. Maybe if we all keep asking for them, Rebecca Charles will give in and put fried clams on the menu. {18 Cornelia St., New York, NY}. 212-691-8211
- Johnny's Famous Reef: The fried clams are good, but it's the amazingly vibrant, multi-cultural scene that is most alluring about Johnny's. Just make sure you go on a nice day. Beware of the extremely aggressive seagulls. They'll steal a clam right out of your hand (they don't even need a fork). {2 City Island Ave, City Island, NY}. 718-885-2086.
- Bigelow's: This quintessential Long Island clam shack is really just one horseshoe counter. Bigelow's is where big-time chefs like Alex Lee (former executive chef, Daniel) and Dave Pasternack go for their fried clam fix. The clams here are fabulous, and so is the french fry draining ritual. They take the french fries out of the fryer when they are done, put them in a white cloth napkin, and shake them all around like the hokey pokey. The fries themselves are standard frozen french fries, but with this kind of floor show it doesn't matter. {79 N. Long Beach Rd., Rockville Center, LI}. 516-678-3878.
Connecticut:
- Lenny's Indian Head Inn: The clams are superfine at this cool spot in Branford right on the water. Don't confuse it with the four Lenny and Joe's Fish Tales locations, which are more commercial endeavors and not as good. {205 South Montowese St., Branford CT}. 203-488-1500.
- Sea Swirl: This is our family stop on the way to the Cape. It's about a seven minute detour off I-95. The clams are delicious, the fries are skippable, and the onion rings are the side of choice. Excellent soft ice cream for dessert with intriguing dip flavors like capuccino. {30 Williams Ave., Mystic, CT}. 860-536-3452.
I have also had good fried clams in Connecticut at the Clam Castle, {1324 Boston Post Rd., Madison, CT}, 203-245-4911 and at Johnny Ad's, {910 Boston Post Rd., Old Saybrook, CT}. 860-388-4032.
Massachusetts:
- Christies: One of Dave Pasternack's fish suppliers turned us on to Christies. It's not much to look at, an old box of a place on a depressing street overlooking the water, but the fried clams are excellent, and for once, properly salted. The best thing about the place is its proximity to Logan Airport. If you don't get lost, as we did, you can get to the airport in twenty minutes. {17 Lynnway, Lynn, MA}. 617-397-9957.
- The Clam Box: Everyone rhapsodizes about the Clam Box, and though it's very good, I didn't see what distinguishes the place from all the other fried clam spots in and around Essex and Ipswich. Beware of long, long lines at the Clam Box. {246 High St., Ipswich, MA}. 978-336-9707.
- Woodman's: The claim at Woodman's is that on July 3, 1916, Lawrence Dexter "Chubby" Woodman was frying a batch of his homemade potato chips at his stand on the road from Ipswich to Gloucester when he either accidentally knocked a clam into the fryer or got an inspiration for a line extension. Ninety years later Woodman's has become the equivalent of a fried clam theme restaurant, complete with frozen drinks and a line of merchandise that includes t-shirts, umbrellas, mugs and visors. The clams are certainly good, but the reconstituted lemon juice you see all over the place is a real bummer. Skip the clam cakes, which are a sodden, heavy disaster. {121 Main St., Essex, MA}. 978-768-6057.
- J.T. Farnham's: Farnham's is an actual shack that overlooks the Essex Salt Marsh that many clams that end up in fryers are harvested from. Pleasant view, very fine fried clams. {88 Eastern Ave. Essex, MA}. 978-768-6643.
- Essex Seafood: You don't come for the view at Essex Seafood, which is of the parking lot. They fry the clams here a little longer, so they end up a lovely dark brown color, which is quite appealing. {143 Eastern Ave., Essex, MA}. 978-768-7233.
- Oxford Creamery: Our friends the Kaisers live right down the road from the Oxford Creamery, which serves an excellent fried clam roll and fine local ice cream. {98 County Rd., Mattapoisett, MA}. 508-758-3847.
- The Bite: I have probably had more fried clams at the Bite than any place else on this list. The clams are excellent (though they do come in the dreaded box) and the bite fries are delicious, irregularly shaped chunks of fried new potato. The only problem with the Bite is its location in Menemsha Harbor, which has become one of the tourist spots on the Vineyard. So there's always a long line at the Bite, and there's only two picnic tables to eat at. We often get our clams and take them to the beach right up the road from the Bite. Basin Road, Menemsha, MA. 508-645-9239.
- Sandy's Fish and Chips: Sandy's adjoins John's Fish Market. Again, there's really no place to eat the clams except for one picnic table in the parking lot., State Rd. Vineyard Haven, MA. 508-693-1220.
Maine:
- Bob's Clam Hut: Bob's is a legendary clam shack that is now surrounded by outlet malls. Not very romantic, but those shops sometimes come in really handy. 315 Route 1, Kittery, Maine. 207-439-4233.
The New York Times recommended four clam shacks recently, and I must admit I haven't been to one of them. I'm going to try and hit The Clam Shack in Falmouth, Harbor, this weekend.
I recently received a copy of New England's Favorite Seafood Shacks, by Elizabeth Bougerol. The book is a lot of fun, and it's filled with tons of information (it has every place mentioned here except Christies, but it does suffer a tad from the "everything is great" school of romantic, funky food writing. Sometimes we food lovers need a discouraging word in books like this so that we believe the author is discerning. That same affliction inhabited a similar book by Brooke Dojny that came out a couple of years ago.
I'm sure I missed a bunch of places. Please, ELE readers, fill in the gaps in this woefully incomplete list.
