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 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.
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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