Posted by Lia Bulaong, February 26, 2007 at 7:54 AM
We mentioned last week that restauranteur Jeffrey Chodorow declared war on the New York Times food section after their food critic Frank Bruni panned Chodorow's new steakhouse Kobe Club and gave it a starless review; former NYT and Time Magazine food critic Mimi Sheraton recently weighed in on the debacle for Slate:
Chodorow, of course, was an idiot to have run such an ad. For one thing, it does worlds of good for the critic, indicating he or she has a strong following, and that his or her words can make or break a dining place—in itself a measure of proven dependability. Chodorow questions Bruni's credentials, but one might also ask: What qualifies Chodorow to be a restaurateur? Simply having eaten out a lot since childhood, as he explains on his new blog, doesn't quite do it. Considering his hit-or-miss record—with disastrous results at the defunct Rocco's, Caviar, and Banana, and two previous incarnations of Mix in New York, yet his successful results at China Grill, Asia de Cuba, and Ono (despite lackluster food)—one might well question his erratic judgment.
Oh snap!
Posted by Lia Bulaong, February 23, 2007 at 10:38 AM
The NYT's Mark Bittman makes a pudding promise: " You can make not only a credible but elegant and delicious chocolate or vanilla pudding in 20 minutes flat, not counting the time it takes to chill. That’s not much longer than it takes to start with a box of powdered mix, add milk and heat it." I have to admit that for some reason I've just always assumed pudding was fairly complicated to make and so had never so much as looked at a recipe for it before; Bittman is also sure to make the point that starting with quality ingredients (like with natural milk, not ultrapasteurized, and maybe purchased from a farm or farmer's market) is the best path to good pudding. He also demonstrates the art of pudding making in a short video, which is a nice touch and something I'd love to see more of in the online food sections of newspapers.
Maki Itoh's Righteous tofu pudding in under 5 minutes should do the trick for you quite nicely, if you're lactose intolerant or vegan. She says, "Now I do not pretend to you that this tastes like a proper pudding or mousse made with cream and such, and if anyone tries to convince you that a tofu based dish like this is ‘just as good/rich as the real thing’ they are either lying or have no taste buds. It’s different, but still good. It’s a lightly sweet, cool and creamy dish that will quiet a sudden urge for Something Sweet."
Posted by Lia Bulaong, February 21, 2007 at 3:53 PM
We see restaurant reviews in newspapers and on blogs every single day but we rarely ever get to hear the other side of the story, how chefs and restauranteurs feel when they read what critics and customers have to say about their food. Today we've got two totally opposite reactions from people on different ends of the food industry ladder:
Matt Finarelli's is working what's only his second job in a kitchen (at Restaurant Vero in Arlington) and his reaction to a local food blog reviewing the restaurant and giving highest praise to a dish he created is sweet and joyful: "So while my one addition was well-received, and even achieved “gem” status, I give all thanks to my bosses for taking the chance to allow me to be creative, my fellow cooks for letting me - the salad chef - take up space on the stove and in the bain marie for the creation of this dish, and to the servers for getting it to the right people at the right time. The seeming success of one in the kitchen is really the success of all."
Financier Jeffrey Chodorow—perhaps known to most as Rocco diSpirito's partner-turned-nemesis on the reality show The Restaurant—was so upset by Frank Bruni's recent slam of his new steakhouse Kobe Club that he spent at least $30K to buy a full-page ad in the NYT today declaring war on the Times food section: "In the interest of fairness, I am introducing my personal blog, which will be a compilation of my food-related experiences and musings and a special section entitled Following Frank and After Adam, in which I will make a follow-up visit to the restaurants they write about for the purpose of reviewing their reviews. My blog will appear at http://www.chinagrillmgt.com/blog/."
Related: What it's like to wait for a NYT review
Posted by Lia Bulaong, February 21, 2007 at 8:57 AM
Kim Severson of the New York Times visited her grandmother's hometown in Italy to discover the secret of her family's spaghetti sauce, only to find the secret wasn't in Italy at all: "In fact, only two things in the village reminded me of anything I grew up with. The fat pork sausages were cooked and served the same way, and my Italian cousins looked just like my brothers. To understand why I made my sauce the way I did, I needed to start closer to home, with my mother. She has been making spaghetti sauce for almost 60 years, from a recipe she learned from her mother, who had been making it with American ingredients since the early 1900s." Severson delves into how adaptation and nostalgia go hand in hand and shares two recipes, one for Italian meatballs and the other the Zappa Family spaghetti sauce.
Posted by Lia Bulaong, February 21, 2007 at 2:50 AM
David Chang was named one of the top ten chefs of 2006 by Food & Wine Magazine and his flagship restaurant Momofuku is one of the shining stars of New York's East Village restaurant scene, so he's no novice when it comes to attention from the press—but waiting for a review of his newest venture from Frank Bruni of the New York Times is a nerve-wracking experience nonetheless.
Chang himself handicaps Momofuku Ssam Bar's chances at getting a starred review over at Eater: "Prune has one star – and that places rocks. This is where my money is: a review that says the restaurant is good enough, but not transcendent – a nice one-star. Some witty insights about the food, some finger wagging about the music being too loud, and a summation about how there are certain elements that prevent the restaurant from being great, but those imperfections are what make the place endearing."
So what did Bruni make of Ssam Bar? His review came out online this morning: "There are reviews that introduce an unheralded chef to an unaware public and reviews that take a renegade view, saying a chef disrespected must be redeemed. Then there’s this one. If it came with a soundtrack, you’d hear the clattering of a bandwagon, along with the heavy thump of an overfed critic landing squarely (or is that roundly?) on it. That critic would be me, and his unsurprising message would be this: David Chang is a terrific cook, a pork-loving, pickle-happy individualist whose integration of Asian flavors and his own unbound sense of what’s delectable makes for some deliriously enjoyable meals." Ssam Bar gets a very loving pair of stars, and a lot of chefs are going to be very hungover today.
Posted by Lia Bulaong, February 14, 2007 at 2:09 AM
Florence Fabricant explains why over 300 people (including 80 chefs) flew into Monte Carlo from all over the world to spend this past weekend commemorating the 80th birthday of the chef Paul Bocuse in Celebrating the Ringmaster of the Restaurant Circus: "Before chefs had their own TV shows and million-dollar book deals, when today’s international obsession with chefs and restaurants was in its infancy, Mr. Bocuse was on the cover of Time magazine as the champion of nouvelle cuisine. People knew his name when they could name no one else who worked in a kitchen. "He made it possible for chefs to be respected international celebrities,” said the New York restaurateur Drew Nieporent. "And he made haute cuisine popular. His restaurant was a pilgrimage destination, the way El Bulli in Spain is today."
Other highlights:
Eric Asimov visits Park B. Smith's wine cellar in Connecticut, an 8,000-square-foot space (with its own full kitchen, bath and dining room) constructed over 25 years that currently contains over 65,000 bottles. If that number boggles your mind, consider this: "More than half of Mr. Smith’s collection is in magnums, twice the size of normal bottles, and the count doesn’t include the 14,000 bottles auctioned off by Sotheby’s last November, which raised almost $5.33 million for his alma mater, the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass."
In So Naughty, So Nice, Florence Fabricant talks discusses how red velvet cake is on the ascendance in New York City: "The layers are an improbable red that can vary from a fluorescent pink to a dark ruddy mahogany. The color, often enhanced by buckets of food coloring, becomes even more eye-catching set against clouds of snowy icing, like a slash of glossy lipstick framed by platinum blond curls. Even the name has a vampy allure: red velvet. "It’s the Dolly Parton of cakes: a little bit tacky, but you love her," said Angie Mosier, a food writer in Atlanta and a board member of the Southern Foodways Alliance at the University of Mississippi in Oxford."
Posted by Lia Bulaong, February 7, 2007 at 9:57 AM
The New York Times introduces a new column today: A Good Appetite by Melissa Clark. Its first installment is A Morning Meal Begs to Stay Up Late, exploring polenta's potential as a dinner item (it of course being the first cousin of grits): "It’s a perfect first recipe for this column devoted to foods I’m hankering to eat and proud to feed to anyone willing to pull up a chair ... or a couch. These are foods that are easy to cook and that speak to everyone, either stirring a memory or creating one."
Other highlights:
Marian Burros discovers the unexpected delight of unlaid eggs, which are eggs in varying stages of development that haven't been laid and are harvested from hens sent to slaughter. "[Dan] Barber tried lightly scrambling the eggs with fresh herbs from the greenhouse garden and served them in eggshells. This is what the unlaid egg should taste like: a deep, concentrated flavor, a hint of sweetness, but not overly rich. “You don’t get that in a full egg,” Mr. Barber noted."
Koreans Share Their Secret for Chicken With a Crunch by Julia Moskin: "Korean-style fried chicken is radically different, reflecting an Asian frying technique that renders out the fat in the skin, transforming it into a thin, crackly and almost transparent crust. (Chinese cooks call this “paper fried chicken.”)"
Posted by Ed Levine, October 24, 2006 at 11:46 AM
It's so easy to bash Rachael Ray, so maybe that's why I found David Carr's column in yesterday's Times so interesting.
My two favorite lines from the story: "But Ms. Ray's folksy approach belies the sophistication of her message. She is part of the cut-to-the-chase genre of media, like Lucky, Domino and Real Simple magazines, and their success is built on this fact of modern life: if people are more secure economically, it is only because they are working longer and harder than ever before." And: "Ms. Ray's recipes may call for store-bought turkey loaf she is really trafficking in the ultimate modern luxury: time."
Carr's piece was really the first one I've seen that tries to place the Rachael Ray phenomenon in context without declaring that she's some kind of cultural cooking antichrist.
I don't know Rachael Ray (I met her once at a party, and she was pleasant and friendly in a hopped up, caffeinated way), and sure I wish her taste and take on food were more sophisticated, but the bottom line is that Rachel Ray empowers lots of people to prepare meals for themselves and their family without feeling overwhelmed or overmatched.
So maybe it's time to move on and let Rachael be Rachael. If she's not for you, that's okay. She clearly taps into something primal in her audience's psyche, and that is clearly good enough for Rachael and her millions of fans. And you've got to give her credit for not trying to be something she's not. There's not an ounce of pretension in her shredded cheese bag.
She's not the cultural food antichrist. There are plenty of famous, successful people in our culture who are far more deserving of our scorn and derision. Like, say, Paris Hilton.
The Times' Kim Severson wrote a nuanced profile of Rachael a few months ago.
Posted by Ed Levine, October 23, 2006 at 7:49 AM
The contest entries have been extraordinary, and keep them coming, but the piece by my buddy Johnny Apple in yesterday's Times should
have reminded all of us that Apple was an inspiration to all food writers and food lovers. Nobody bought more passion and knowledge, not to mention reportorial skill and know-how, to food writing than Johnny.
Johnny's posthumously published story yesterday had me thinking about jumping on a series of planes immediately, and I don't have the frequent flyer miles or the cash to do so.
Posted by Ed Levine, October 18, 2006 at 7:11 AM
I devour writing about food much the same way a rescued frostbitten mountainclimber tears into his first meal on terra firma. And because I read many of the same publications over and over again I've come to know which writers I can trust about food. Adam Platt, Frank Bruni, Gael Greene, Ruth Reichl, and Alan Richman are all writers I read or have read regularly over the last ten years, so I know where they are coming from. I don't always agree with them, but I have come to know where they stand vis a vis my own point of view about food.
I read the Times Travel Section with relish this past Sunday from cover to cover. Mark Bittman is a writer, colleague, and casual friend whom I have eaten with a few times over the years, but I didn't find my experiences eating with Bittman necessary to know that I wanted to get on a plane immediately to eat the ham sandwich in Barcelona at Cafe Viena he described in his short piece. And if Bittman's decription wasn't enough to get me on the plane, the photo of all that beautiful patenegro tumbling out of that baguette did the trick.
Then I read Gregory's Dicum's piece on cheap eats in San Francisco. I have never heard of Dicum, but his writing made me pretty hungry. Then again almost anything makes me hungry. But since there was no little bio on Dicum, I had no way to make a judgement about whether I could trust his eating advice. So I googled Dicum, and it turned out he's written three books (one on coffee) and writes an online column for SF Gate. Dicum wrote about Delfina Pizzeria, one of the new chef-driven pizzerias that have cropped up in SF in the past year or two. My SF foodwriter friends have told me that Delfina is the least impressive (though by no means bad) of these new pizzerias (the others being Picco in Larkspur and Pizzaiola in Oakland). So I wondered just how reliable Dicum's eating advice is.
Finally, there was an interesting piece about Istanbul restaurants by Henry Shukman. His piece was very well written, and it once again made me hungry
Posted by Ed Levine, October 6, 2006 at 6:53 AM
"More love and more joy than age or time could ever destroy."
Smokey Robinson
My friend Johnny Apple died this past Tuesday, and in his honor I went to the Shake Shack and had a triple dip sundae with hot caramel AND hot chocolate sauce. Johnny's great passion for food extended from frozen custard to foie gras. Of course if Johnny had been there with me we would have ordered so much more. Johnny Apple was all about MORE; more deliciously, obscenely rich food, more drink, more knowledge, more stories, and more heart and soul than I'd ever seen in one person before.
I first met Johnny five or so years ago when we both served on a committee. I remember sitting around a conference table at a midtown accounting firm discussing various matters and being in awe of Apple's authoratitive, stentorian take on everything. The rest of us would be discussing the merits of one person or another, and then Johnny would weigh in, and then the real jousting would begin. He wasn't just another 500 pound gorilla at a conference table. He was a 500 pound gorilla who simply had eaten and drunk MORE than the rest of us, and he wasn't shy about letting us know that. Everyone else at the table had known Johnny for years, but I was the newbie who couldn't believe I was sitting at the same table with the Johnny Apple, legendary New York Times reporter, editor and bureau chief. I remember wanting so much to impress him with my own knowledge and expertise.
After the meeting was over Johnny came over to me and asked where he should meet some friends for lunch. I told him to go to Pearl, where he could have a lobster roll, some clams and oysters on the half shell, and some chowder. I couldn't believe that Johnny Apple was asking ME where to eat.
The meeting broke up around noon, and I went home to work on a story.
Around 3:00 p.m. my home office phone rang. I picked it up, only to be confronted by a very loud and very enthusiastic voice: "Levine, Apple here.
You were right about Pearl. It was great. Thanks for the tip. It was a pleasure to meet you." And then he hung up.
Over the next few years Johnny and I would grab a bite, even if it was mine or his fourth or fifth or even sixth meal of the day. He took an interest in my Times stories and my relationship with the newspaper of record. Johnny was generous with advice, career and otherwise, not just to me but to anyone that crossed his path.
I remember sitting in a restaurant with him eating some fried oysters, when Johnny noticed the young couple next to us had a guidebook open and were discussing where they might eat during their stay in New York. Johnny leans over to them and practically shouts out, "We're food writers, we'll tell you where to eat." I loved the fact that Johnny, one of the greatest political reporters of all time, decribed himself as a food writer.
A couple of years ago my wife and I met Johnny and his beloved "wife Betsey" at, fittingly enough, Pearl, for dinner. Johnny and Betsey were delightful dinner companions, Johnny weighing in on everything and anything going on in our lives, from our son's college search, to great literature and architecture and history and jazz and food and drink. Betsey turned out to be the perfect foil for Johnny: the smile in her voice belied a fierce intelligence and a Japanese knife-sharp wit.
I have lots more Johnny stories, as does everyone who ever crossed paths with him. There's that word again, MORE. Johnny Apple was the king of more. He lived a life filled with more joy and generousity of spirit and bravado and bluster and heart and soul than anyone else I have ever known . And now that he's gone, I wonder who is going to supply the more we all need.
Todd Purdum's wonderful obit and some great Apple video in the Times
Calvin Trillin's masterful, spot-on profile of Johnny in the New Yorker
Posted by Ed Levine, September 14, 2006 at 8:45 AM
To me, there are two national treasures in the world of writers who sometimes write about food, and then there are the rest of us. I'm not going to talk about food's poet laureate Calvin Trillin, though I hope Gourmet's new Restaurant issue will have something by him. No, I'm here to celebrate Nora Ephron.
She may be best known to some people as a screenwriter (Silkwood) and director (Sleepless in Seattle), but anyone who doesn't know that Nora Ephron is a seemingless effortless, inordinately graceful, and laugh-out-loud-funny essayist should not only read her current best-seller, "I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts About Being a Woman, but also seek out Crazy Salad, a much earlier but just as stellar book of essays about food and many other things.
I was reminded once again of her genius when I read yesterday's NY Times Op-Ed page, which had a great Ephron piece titled "What to Expect When You're Expecting Dinner." In the vignette about her dislike of dessert spoons, Ephron writes "One of the greatest things about this land of ours, as far as I'm concerned, is that we never fell into the dessert-spoon trap. If you needed a spoon for dessert, you were given a teaspoon. But those days are over, and it's a shame."
Then she takes the piece into another gear: "Here's the thing about dessert--you want it to last. You want to savor it. Dessert is so delicious. It's so sweet. It's so bad for you so much of the time. And as with all bad things, you want it to last as long as possible. But you can't make it last if they give you a breat big spoon to eat it with. You'll gobble up your dessert in two big gulps. Then it will be gone. And the meal with be over."
"Why don't they get this? It's so obvious. It's so obvious."
Posted by Ed Levine, July 21, 2006 at 9:58 AM
Photo courtesy of The Great Taco Hunt
I don't know who Cindy Price is, but she wrote a great mouthwatering story in today's NY Times about her search for the ultimate taco along Route 1 between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Cindy hit 28 taquerias in five days. That's some serious taco eating. She started in LA, and hit my favorite taqueria there, El Taurino. El Taurino is a little scary (the last time I was there an armed guard kept watch over the dining room), but the tacos there are fantastic.
She headed up to Santa Barbara, where before she tried the late Julia Child's favorite taqueria, La Super Rica Taqueria, she posed the following question: "Do rich people eat tacos?" I actually think the question is a food rorschach test for rich folks. That is, if they don't eat tacos, they are only rich in a material sense. Anyone who doesn't eat tacos cannot be spiritually enriched.
But this is a question I would like everyone to ponder: "Do rich people eat tacos?"
In her story Cindy also mentioned the phenomenal taco blog
Posted by Ed Levine, July 10, 2006 at 7:47 AM
I must admit the idea of an organic hot dog seemed silly to me until I read Kim Seversen's piece on that very subject in last week's Times. As usual Kim blended the thoughtful and the delicious. So she actually inspired me to try the Applegate Farms organic hot dogs the company had sent me (and every other food writer in captivity).
And I was shocked to find that these organic hot dogs were mighty tasty. They were garlicky, coarsely ground, and just salty enough.
If they had a natural casing they'd be a potential entrant in my Hot Dog Hall of Fame. Maybe they couldn't find organic casings, though I don't see why not, as the natural casings are made from either pig or sheep organs.
Posted by Ed Levine, July 10, 2006 at 7:13 AM
When we visited Vancouver a couple of years ago we had a series of good not great meals in what is supposed to be a great food city.
The best meal we had there was at Vij's 1480 W. 11th Avenue (604-736-6664), which melds Indian flavors, herbs and spices into an original contemporary cooking style. I hadn't thought about Vij's in awhile, but Sara Dickerman's piece about Vancouver's Indian food in last Sunday's New York Times reminded me that I wish Vij's was located in New York. The closest thing to Vij's in New York is the Bread Bar at Tabla. So if you're not going to Vancouver any time soon, hit the Bread Bar.
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.
Posted by Ed Levine, May 14, 2006 at 5:46 PM
This week the New York Times reported that Wal-Mart is about to get into organic food in a big way. At first glance this seemed like real progress. It conjured up visions of Alice Waters giving out samples of Frog Hollow peaches at Wal-Marts all over the country.
But a more careful examination of the story reveals a different scenario. As Ronnie Cummins, national director of the Organic Consumers Assocation put it, "This model of one size fits all and lowest prices possible doesn't work in organic. Their (Wal-Mart) business model is going to wreck organic the way it's wrecking retail stores, driving out all competitors."
An editorial today in the Times got it exactly right. On one hand it's a positive step that Wal-Mart is going to sell organic food at ten per cent above the cost of conventional food. But do organic Doritos and organic Coke really represent any real progress in terms of what food most Americans consume? I don't think so. Michael Pollen's brilliant piece on this subject in the Times Magazine a few years ago should be required reading for anyone interested in the food we eat.
Don't think for a moment that Wal-Mart is going to be buying from the same local organic growers that supply your local chefs and restaurants with organic peaches and tomatoes. In fact, one aspect of Whole Foods I really resent is that they shout organic and local, but when you look closely (in NY at least) you find that local food gets really short shrift at WF. Only when companies like Whole Foods and Wal-Mart get serious about selling locally grown and sourced food as possible will real progress be made. Local food grown by responsible farmers trumps organic lettuce trucked 3,000 miles from where it's come out of the earth. Every time.
Posted by Ed Levine, April 27, 2006 at 7:29 PM
According to today's New York Times, Chicago's City Council yesterday became the first city in the country to outlaw the sale of foie gras. According to the Chicago Sun Times Chi-town mayor Richard M. Daley had this to say in response:
"We have children getting killed by gang leaders and dope dealers. We have real issues here in this city. And we're dealing with foie gras? Let's get some priorities." Finally, a politician I can get behind. Richard M. Daley for President! He's a decider. And a prioritizer.
Posted by Ed Levine, March 27, 2006 at 12:42 PM
In yesterday's New York Times there was a funny piece about Jews and Chinese food by Patricia Volk. Best line:
There's an e-joke making the rounds: According to the Jewish calendar, the year is 5766. According to the Chinese calendar, it's 4703. That means for 1,063 years, it's 4703. That means for 1,063 years, Jews went without Chinese food.
And this line about Chinese food in the 1950's: "Every dish contained so much cornstarch, the ingredients appeared suspended."
Growing up Jewish on Long Island in the late fifties, we (just like the Volks), too, went for Chinese food every Sunday (the housekeeper's day off) to China Jade in Hewlett. There were six of us, all big eaters, but my dad would always order "dinner for five" to save money. That meant we ordered five dishes, two from Column A and three from Column B.
This is what I remember eating: wonton soup, egg rolls, roast pork fried rice, spare ribs, roast pork and Chinese vegetables, shrimp with lobster sauce, chow har kew (breaded shrimp) and moo goo gai pan (watery chicken and vegetables). The egg rolls and the wonton soup came with all dinners. I thought the food at China Jade was just incredibly delicious. So when the Hewlett Public Library invited me to speak a few years ago, I went back to China Jade afterwards and ordered a combination plate. The food was awful. Taste memories really do play tricks on us. I would like to hear from readers about their seminal Chinese food eating experiences.
Posted by Ed Levine, March 27, 2006 at 12:42 PM
I hate to keep mining yesterday's New York times for my posts, but there were lots of thought-provoking food stories worth commenting on. Michael Pollen's Times Magazine cover story on hunting for his dinner was well-written but ultimately unsurprising. Pollen concluded after shooting a pig and serving it to his dinner guests that that killing the flesh he served made the food on his table more meaningful. I guess the only other conclusion he could have come to was that he and every other carnivore should become a vegetarian or even worse, a vegan.
Posted by Ed Levine, March 26, 2006 at 12:43 PM
For those of us who derive great pleasure from eating and talking about it, today's New York Times is a veritable smorgasboard, a feast for our stomachs, brains and heart. Let's start with Mimi Sheraton's cover story on eating in Rome in the Travel section . I've met Mimi Sheraton on a few occasions, even broken bread with her, and she has been nasty and unpleasant towards me each time. Why I don't know. That said, she often writes very well and very passionately about the lusty pleasures so many of us derive from life around the table. I still have a yellowed clipping of the piece she wrote for New York Magazine about New Orleans food many, many years ago. And her piece on eating in Rome today was Sheraton at her best. Halfway through it I wanted to jump on a plane to Rome to savor the "tiny fried croquettes of artichokes, meatballs and the like," as well as the "big, rustic chunks of oxtail" at Il Matriciano, the carbonara and fried artichokes at Matricianella, and the breads and sandwiches at Compagnia del Pane.
Posted by Ed Levine, March 26, 2006 at 12:43 PM
New York Times food reporters Kim Severson and Julia Moskin (full disclosure here; I know both of them and the three of us have broken bread together) had a front-page story today detailing the growth of meal assembly centers around the country. People looking to save time and money and still put what can only loosely be called a "home-cooked meal" on their family table go to one of these centers and make "12 dinners for six in two hours for under $200." I wonder what Alice Waters, who has been saying for years that the disappearing "family meal" is one of the chief causes of the de-evolution of family life in this country, thinks about these centers, which use preassembled ingredients from mega-food suppliers like Sysco. I suppose it is a form of progress that people do sit down together at a family meal. But if they are serving pre-assembled meals (made of substandard ingredients) that are only technically homemade it seems to me these stressed out folks are only exchanging one problem for another. That is, they are eating pre-fab food assembled from lousy ingredients TOGETHER. What would be interesting to find out is whether there are centers where you can come and assemble meals made of locally sourced, responsibly grown foodstuffs to serve at home. That would truly represent progress. I think even Alice Waters would admit that. That kind of operation would probably cost more than $200 for the 12 dinners for six and would by definition segment the assembled meal market.
Posted by Ed Levine, March 24, 2006 at 12:44 PM
Last Wednesday's (March 15th) New York Times featured a cover story on Charleston food by R.W. Apple. Johnny, as he is known to his friends, had been missing from the old gray lady's pages for too long. He's one of the country's great reporters, food writers and, most of all, one of our greatest eaters. Welcome back, Johnny. We missed reading about your Falstaffian eating and drinking adventures. Reading your piece made me so hungry. I can't wait to eat the fried local shrimp at the Seawee Restaurant and the gumbo at Gullah Cuisine Lowcountry Restaurant.
Posted by Ed Levine, February 24, 2006 at 1:00 PM
Alice Water's piece on the Op Ed page of today's NYTimes is required reading. She wants schools to consider giving course credit for lunch, which Alice would make into an interactive learning experience. What a delicious notion! If I had gotten credit for lunch when I was in school, I definitely would have graduated Pie Bita Kappa.
Posted by Ed Levine, February 21, 2006 at 1:09 PM
Marian Burro had a terrific piece today in the "A" section of the NY Times about yet another food process that's bound to confuse consumers. Apparently some packaged beef in supermarkets is being sold in "airtight packages treated with a touch of carbon monoxide to help the product stay red for weeks." The picture accompanying the piece is truly strange, two steaks bought on the same day, February 3rd, and photographed on February 16th. The treated steak is bright red, and the untreated steak is a mottled combination of brown and red. This is not my idea of dry-aging.
