Posted by Zach Brooks, April 16, 2008 at 3:00 PM
Photograph courtesy of thewx4.com
Despite being subjected to the familiar "don't play with your food" parental instruction throughout my childhood, as an adult I can't help but succumb to a little makeshift breakfast sandwich action. The most popular (and easiest to assemble), has got to be the irresistible pancake-bacon combo, or you can get a little more serious, as in the case of the waffle sandwich I posted about here last September.
It's always fun to create your own monstrosity, but I have a tremendous amount of respect for the chef who saves you (and by that I mean my wife) from the embarrassment of a self-made sandwich at the table. Such is the case with the seared smoked pork loin and French toast sandwich served for brunch at Thuet, a Toronto restaurant-bakery-boulangerie-atelier run by Alsatian chef Marc Thuet.
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Posted by The Gurgling Cod, March 12, 2008 at 8:30 AM
As a serious eater with a commute where a MetroCard is no help at all, I was pleased to see restaurant critic Frank Bruni go beyond Gotham with his Coast to Coast series in the New York Times dining section. I was more pleased to see that one of the spots was in New Orleans, which happened to coincide with a previously planned day-job-related trip there. Make no mistake. Unless it's during Jazzfest or Mardi Gras, it's hard to eat badly in New Orleans.* Pound for pound, it's hard to think of a place that has such depth of excellence from haute to street. I lived in New Orleans for a year in the 1990s, return as often as I can, and had many excellent meals there long before Bruni had to worry about the diacritics on crème brûlée. While I knew that there were dozens of options within yards of the conference I was attending, I was excited about Cochon, and excited about being part of the conversation about Cochon.
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Posted by Ed Levine, March 1, 2008 at 1:00 PM
Editor's note: Occasionally what looks at first glance to be a conventional guidebook transcends the genre in surprising ways. John T. Edge's Southern Belly is just such a read, which is why I'm pleased that he has allowed us to excerpt selected items from it on Serious Eats, where they appear every other week. —Ed Levine
By John T. Edge | The Italians wouldn't put up with this. Imagine some governmental agency coming between the good citizens of Rome and their supply of prosciutto di Parma. And you can be sure that the French would raise a ruckus if Parisians were cut off from their artisanal sources for saucisson sec.
But for the most part, we Southerners just knuckled under when the U.S. Department of Agriculture declared that unless a ham is cured in a USDA-inspected facility, it cannot be commercially transported across state lines or served in a restaurant. In other words, Trigg County ham producers like Doug Freeman and Charlie Bell Wadlington, Tennie Vanzant, and Kerry Fowler, who, like their fathers and grandfathers before them, put up hams the old-fashioned way, could no longer ship their product to customers in the Carolinas, much less California, nor could they sell their hams to the local café.
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Posted by Michael Nagrant, February 15, 2008 at 2:00 PM
For those of us without backyards, it’s tough to sate a hankering for moist roast pork with shiny laquered cracklins. As much as I’d like to park a Caja China in my Chicago condo and vent the porky smoke out to the street, I’m afraid the hundred year old timber trusses, which happen to be as dry as an AA convention, would somehow spontaneously combust. So it’s with great relief that I can at least head up to the north side and drop maybe the best $6 of my week for some tosilog at Tapsilog at Iba Pa.
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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 Zach Brooks, October 9, 2007 at 3:55 PM
When one talks about food, the word decadent is usually reserved for things like rich chocolaty desserts and expensive ingredients like truffles or foie gras. It isn't usually used to describe dishes like ox heart or pig's head—and yet after a recent meal at Fergus Henderson's St. John Restaurant in London that included both of those things, I can't think of another word to use.
If you are going to consume a meal entirely of pork fat and offal (pronounced "awful" by those who both love it and hate it), there is really only one place to do it. Opened in 1994 by Henderson, St. John Restaurant has become a mecca for eaters looking for a bit of "nose to tail" eating.
As a lover of all things pig, I knew I was in for a treat when we walked into the converted smokehouse and were greeted by three fully roasted, beautiful-looking suckling pigs. One was in the front room, waiting to be picked apart and made into sandwiches for a private cocktail party happening later in the night, and two others were just relaxing above a stove in the open kitchen.
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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 Adam Kuban, May 1, 2007 at 1:00 PM
Philadelphia's Reading Terminal Market held their very first Scrapplefest last month to celebrate the Pennsylvania treat, and the big draw was of course a cooking contest with the winner to be crowned Scrapple King.
Third place went to a pulled-pork and scrapple sandwich with pecorino cheese, and second to crisp-fried scrapple used as toast points with seared tuna, mango and avocado. You'd think the big prize would've gone to the guys who made a sweet scrapple bread pudding, dressed with a white chocolate sauce, or maybe the creator of "Scrapple Nouveau", who made a napoleon of sorts by layering "his homemade scrapple with apricot compote, blood orange sauce, goat cheese, microgreens and a polenta-pig topping." But no, 2007's Scrapple King is Nick Ochs of the highly-esteemed Harry G. Ochs and Sons, recognized for his scrapple burger and fries. It sounds straightforward enough, but I'm guessing the judges were mightily impressed by the fact that his "fries" were actually made out of scrapple too: sliced into strips and deep-fried. Truly a man for the ages.
Posted by Ed Levine, April 20, 2007 at 8:00 AM
I have been to the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival many, many times, yet every time I don't go, I feel that I'm missing something profoundly important. Especially now, with New Orleans's cultural heritage under siege post-Katrina, I am kicking myself that I haven't made plans to go this year.
What makes the festival great to me, however, is not the parade of big-name musicians appearing every day, though it is a unique experience to see artists like Elvis Costello, Bob Dylan, and Bonnie Raitt play in this unique setting.
What makes it great is the local and non–big-name musicians and cooks playing and cooking at the smaller stages and tents.I saw Ricky Dillard practically levitate the Gospel Tent a few years ago, and I had just wandered in there fresh from a Wayne Shorter set, not ever having heard of him.
The food itself is so extraordinary that the music can almost seem like a bonus. I am partial to the cochon de lait po'boy from Love at First Bite and the meat pies from Mrs. Wheat's. My friend Dan Ruby has a terrific music festival website, and there was a great post about meat pies there yesterday by Beth Swindle.
