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.
Will another light-green bar, signaling a new world record, make its way onto this chart tomorrow? Will Joey Chestnut, the only American since 1999 to win the Mustard Belt, hold onto his title? He would make 1916 champ James Mullen proud. [via Waxy.org]
Related:
Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest Shortened to Ten Minutes
Photo of the Day: Patriotic Hot Dog from Nathan's
Fancy Food Show vendors tore down their exhibits today, probably pawning off tons of excess product after the three-day event. And you know what—I wouldn't mind some Zambian hot sauce from Elephant Pepper or chow chow from Flippin' Pickles. That's right. As much as we fancied the Unfancy Food Show, we didn't unfancy the Fancy Food Show, echoing an argument made today by the Village Voice.
Remember the Real World locale guessing game? "I heard Los Angeles! No, it's totally New Orleans, stupid." The same intrigue and mystery now follows Top Chef, except sources like food blog Snack and now Grub Street have revealed that season five will in fact call New York home. Come July, you can whip out your camera phones and start stalking the wandering knife cases.
So this is what condiments look like during infancy. Aw.
Tina Wong (aka The Wandering Eater) came across these baby condiment jars while eating at The Little Owl in New York City.
Related
Photo of the Day: Solid Cocktails
The Wandering Eater at Momofuku Ko
Photo of the Day: Cheddar and Bacon Chive Scone
You're in the East Village and you want a Grizzly Peak Marzen on draft. Think fast. Wandering in Midtown West, thirsty for a Brooklyn Pilsner. Where to turn? A few clicks later, BeerMenus.com has the answers. (Hop Devil Grill and St. Andrews, respectively). While MenuPages is strictly food and BeerAdvocate has a grasp on beer-focused web forums, this beer 2.0 site combines the two and includes prices, specific alcohol by volume and the beer medium (tap, casket, bottle, can). It's like Ask Jeeves for the boozer, but unfortunately only in New York for now. [via Webware]
Photograph from Tina Wong on Flickr
You're not just looking at any old bowl of cereal and milk, marshmallow, or Jell-O cube, but a White Russian with toasted puffed rice cereal, a Ramos Gin Fizz marshmallow, and a cube of Cuba Libre gelatin atop a slice of dried lime. These are the solid cocktails from Tailor, a contemporary dining and cocktail parlor in New York City. Read more about Tailor in Tina Wong's review.
Previously
The Wandering Eater at Momofuku Ko
Unique Desserts at the Dessert Studio in New York City
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.
Photograph from Tina Wong on Flickr
If you're not paying attention, you could easily miss the small neon sign tucked away in a corner of the window of New York City's molecular gastronomy–specialized restaurant, WD-50. Don't know what WD-50 is all about? Read Tina's reviews of its dinner and dessert for a virtual taste.
Artisanal candy shop Papabubble in New York City's Little Italy makes fresh batches of creatively flavored and styled candies each day. This video from Cool Hunting brings you behind-the-scenes of the candy-making process with co-owner Fiona Ryan and candy maker Jelly, from pouring out the boiled sugar, stretching the candy base, rolling out the candy, and cutting it into pieces.
Watch the transformation from molten sugar to bite-sized treat after the jump.
Wow, it turns out that people are as passionate about their local food as they are about their sports teams. There were many claims and counterclaims being made by Boston and New York food advocates on yesterday's post, so I thought it might clarify things if I broke down the comparison food group by food group, much the same way newspapers, magazines, sports radio shows, and talking heads on television break down a football team: offensive line vs. offensive line, linebackers vs. linebackers, quarterback vs. quarterback, coach vs coach, and so on.
New York magazine offers a rather thorough guide to where to eat in New York City in 2008.
New Year's Eve usually drives me crazy. We can never figure out what to do. I hate going to restaurants, many of whom jack up their prices figuring people are so desperate to convince themselves they are doing something special that they don't mind paying the extra ducats. I don't like traveling far to a New Year's Eve party even in NYC because I don't like dealing with the crazies on the street and on the subways who are determined to suck everyone around them into their manic New Year's Eve behavior. So our rule of thumb on New Year's Eve is to go to a party in our neighborhood that we can easily walk to.
This year our good pals Eric and Eslee invited us to their apartment right down the street from us. We don't even have to cross a street to get to their party. We love Eric and Eslee (their son Max, Will's good buddy, is practically our second son), so we really look forward to going to their house. We're supposed to bring two desserts this year. Vicky would like to make brownies. What's the best brownie recipe you know? We like them both fudgy and cakey with nuts. C'mon Serious Eaters! We're counting on you.
Cuddlier and more efficient than exterminators and poison, the cats that prowl your local delis and bodegas hunting for rats and mice are getting busted by the NYC Department of Health as a health risk. You gotta ask yourself what's worse: a rat-killing feline or vermine noshing at your bread loaves? [via Gothamist]
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.
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."
We Americans used to believe that all chocolate came from France (or possibly from Belgium or Switzerland). Now we know that it comes from asymmetrical pod-laden trees that grow in the jungles of Côte D'Ivoire, New Guinea, Brazil, Venezuela, the Caribbean, and Central America. But the French are still in charge of the Chocolate Show.
Francophone couple Sylvie Douce and François Jeantet founded the show in Paris in 1995 (they got 40,000 visitors on the first try), and they brought the event to New York ten years ago. At this weekend's New York Chocolate Show, France's chocolate artisans offer some healthy competition to their American counterparts.
New York City residents should check out Milk-n-Honey, "a multimedia theatrical performance about Americans, food, appetite, and happiness" currently playing at 3-Legged Dog until November 18. Each night after the show you can snack on free cupcakes and participate in special events in the After Show Café.
Yen and Michi's blog, Lunch, is exactly what it sounds like: a blog about lunch, updated daily with a photo of what they had for lunch and a 4 p.m. snack. A virtual peephole into Yen and Michi's day, Lunch inspires me to take the time for lunch. We get to know Yen and Michi in this week's Meet & Eat.
Name: Yen Ha and Michi Yanagishita
Location: New York City
Occupation: Architects at Front Studio
URL: lunchstudio.blogspot.com
What prompted you to start your blog, Lunch?
We've always eaten lunch the way we do (which is to say everywhere and everything) and we've always had this slight obsession with cataloging, so it seemed normal to combine the two compulsions in a blog. Architecture tends to be a rather serious profession, so we wanted to create a light and amusing distraction.
What's the most surprising thing to come out of your blogging?
We've been pleasantly surprised to be making friends through Lunch. Using the blog as a pretext, we've been writing old friends, acquaintances, and sometimes strangers, inviting them to share a meal. We're seldom opposed to meeting new people or trying a new place for lunch, which makes for some fun meals.
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.
If you live in or will be visiting New York City on October 6, there's what looks like an awesome culinary tour—the 7 Train Eating Tour.
It's $75 and lasts five hours and is given as part of the Institute of Culinary Education's "Recreational Division." Full description after the jump. [via curdnerds.com]
I woke up Sunday morning thinking I was going to go to the Farm Aid concert and feed, but I went to Serious Eats world headquarters instead and cleaned my desk. I wanted to see what kind of local, family, farm-oriented food they had, and I really wanted to see the Allman Brothers Band, who I hadn't seen since the Watkins Glen rock festival in 1973.
But Kim Severson went and reported that Alice Waters took offense at the corporate nature of the food sponsors. Companies like Horizon Organic and Clif Bar apparently paid sponsorship fees to be able to sell their products at Farm Aid.
What is Alice's remedy for all this Farm Aid–sanctioned corporate food?
The New York City Food Film Festival continues tonight and over the weekend with its third and final installment for the year. Three nights of barbecue films, people. That's something we at Serious Eats can get behind.
Lights, camera, action at Water Taxi Beach in Long Island City. Films are free and 'cue can be purchased at the event. More info here.
There's good, mouthwatering food porn, and then there's Gridskipper's NYC Macaroni and Cheese Porn Gallery. Macaroni and cheese samples from ten New York restaurants are photographed in all their gooey, glistening, residual cheese-trailing glory to illustrate the wide variety of macaroni and cheese that New York has to offer. The gallery is informative, but I have a feeling the photos don't capture the tastiness that each restaurant has to offer. Gridskipper will reveal its choice for the best macaroni and cheese sometime today.
Down the block from the Serious Eats office on 7th Avenue and 27th Street is Charlie's Fashion Beef Hot Dogs where for $1.50 you can get a grilled hot dog topped with onion, relish, chili, ketchup and mustard. The life of the above hot dog was about a minute before swimming in my stomach's digestive juices. It was a damn good minute.
I'm somewhat glad that I don't know what mangosteens taste like; otherwise I might shell out $11 just for one piece of the fruit primarily grown in Thailand. Gersh Kuntzman only indulged in two pieces at a gourmet greengrocer in Brooklyn, lest he wanted to refinance his house. Although Kuntzman happily tore into his $45-a-pound fruit, his wife was less impressed:
"Face it, at $45 a pound, this mangosteen should come in a limousine with a chauffer who also cleans our kitchen. Besides, the joy of eating a mangosteen is eating it in Thailand. Imagine sending a Bagel Hole bagel to your brother in North Carolina. It’s not even worth the bother."
I think I'll skip out on trying a mangosteen stateside for now—it gives me all the more reason for me to visit Thailand.
Of course, if you do want to try them Stateside, shipments of Puerto Rico–grown mangosteens started arriving on these shores earlier this month. (Those grown in Thailand are banned from the U.S. because of concerns over insect infestation.)
The season is short, and only two outlets have distribution deals—Melissa's World Variety Produce in Los Angeles and Baldor in New York City.
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.
Address: 90 Bedford Street, New York NY 10014
Phone: 212-741-4695
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.
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.
In these modern times of high rises on New York City's Lower East Side, health fad diets, and increasingly hard-to-find high-quality ingredients (Where can you get a good rye bread these days? Does anyone dry-age pastrami anymore?), can the New York delicatessen survive?
These questions were tackled Tuesday night at the Museum of the City of New York at a panel discussion titled "Jewish Cuisine and the Evolution of the Jewish Deli." The talk was moderated by food writer Matthew Goodman (Jewish Food: The World at Table), and the panel included food historian Joel Denker (The World on a Plate: A Tour through History of America’s Ethnic Cuisine); former New York Times restaurant critic Mimi Sheraton; Alan Dell, owner of Katz’s Delicatessen; Jack Lebewohl, owner of the now-shuttered 2nd Avenue Deli; and Mark Federman, third-generation owner of Russ & Daughters.
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).
Everybody has heard of a PBJ. And I've seen the classic tomato, basil, and mozzarella combo called a TBM on a few occasions. But hands down, my favorite three-letter sandwich is the PMB. By applying the transitive property, the PBM should consist of peanut butter, basil, and mozzarella—but that would be disgusting (or would it?). Lucky for us, we don't have to test that theory, because the PMB actually stands for pancetta, mango, and basil, a combo of ingredients that makes up one of my favorite New York sandwiches, found at the Sullivan Street Bakery.
If you walked by a Whole Foods in New York City last night, you would've seen a long line of people waiting outside the closed storefront. If you walked by a Whole Foods in New York City early this morning, you would've still seen the long line of people, although this time huddled under umbrellas to protect themselves from a downpour.
What were they all waiting so diligently for? A bag. What kind of bag would only be sold at Whole Foods? Anya Hindmarch's $15 environmentally aware "I'm not a plastic bag" bag. As Hindmarch's tote bags tend to cost closer to $500 than $15, there's a bit more demand for her cloth tote bags sold at cost in order to raise awareness about the plastic bags we mindlessly throw away every year. It sells out in hours at any store it graces with its presence, nearly caused a riot in Hong Kong, and goes for hundreds of dollars on eBay.
As the New York Times says, "If you are reading this anytime after dawn on Wednesday, you are probably too late to make a fashion statement and simultaneously keep the world safe from plastic bags."
I guess I'll just have to stick with the cloth tote bag that I've been using for the past four years (whose purchase didn't require waiting outside a store overnight). It may not be as fashionable, but it does hold stuff, so I guess it gets the job done.
The Gothamist-AHT/SE QBQ BBQ II
Photograph courtesy of Jason Perlow
Last year, Serious Eats burger site A Hamburger Today teamed up with Gothamist for the Gothamist-AHT QBQ (that's Quality Before Quantity), we've decided to team up with them again this year for another burger bash at Water Taxi Beach in Long Island City, Queens. At last year's event, chef Harry Hawk served four regional burgers from around the nation.
We're doing something similar this year, but this time you get to choose which burgers will be served, with the top three vote-getters across Gothamist and A Hamburger Today/Serious Eats making the menu. Some are regional specialties, and some are original Water Taxi Beach creations. I'll get to the candidate burgers in a bit, but first the nitty-gritty details.
But before the details, can I tell you that later in the evening, Grandmaster Flash will be spinning at WTB? OK, the deets:
I've just completed food's version of a triathlon (a foodathlon?), a two day walk-through of the Fancy Food Show at New York City's Javits Center. I swam through hundreds of adult sodas, biked my way though miles of healthy snacks, and ran through a virtual United Nations of country food booths. What did I find in the miles of aisles?
Read on with some antacid at the ready.
I visited both Ed's Lobster Bar and Pearl Oyster Bar yesterday, in search of a glimmer of sanity and truth in what is obviously a sea of resentment and betrayal. I found out that, yes, Ed's uses the same toilet paper as Pearl. And that he makes a good lobster roll with thicker french fries than Pearl's. And that, yes, his Caesar salad does have English muffin croutons, just like Pearl's. And that Pearl's fried oyster roll is so deliciously crunchy, crisp, and briny I could have it every day for lunch.
But I also found a beleaguered Ed McFarland, in way over his head as he tries to make sense of all this. McFarland held a press conference in which (according to Grub Street) he said the following: "I believe her action has no merit. I harbor no ill will and wish her safely to port." His lawyer, Alan Serrins, followed with the following bit of disingenuousness: "I didn't know Caesar salad and lobsters are protected under the intellectual-property laws."
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 inaugural NYC Food Film Festival continues tonight at Water Taxi Beach. Tonight and tomorrow's films listed below.
Friday, June 22
8:30 p.m. - Tasting Rachel Ray - 3 mins.
8:45 - Above The Line - Saving Willie Mae's Scotch House - 45 mins.
9:30 - Dial S For Sausage - 15 mins.
9:45 - Fried Pies - 12 mins.
10 - Working The Miles - 13 mins.
10:15 - Hot Chicken - 10 mins.
10:30 - Q&A with filmmaker Joe York of Above The Line. Fried Pies, Hot Chicken, etc.
Saturday, June 23
8:30 p.m. - Tasting Rachel Ray - 3 mins.
- Hot Chicken - 10 mins.
- 4H at the Missouri State Fair - 4 mins.
8:50 - American Beer - 105 mins.
10:30 - Q&A with Paul Kermizian from American Beer
I had the good fortune to visit the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan last week. The huge installation of Richard Serra sculptures was impressive and well worth a stroll through the museum's courtyard and upper floors. However, it was The Modern, Danny Meyer's restaurant on the ground floor that really had me smiling. My wife and I enjoyed a great lunch in The Bar Room that offered small plates of Alsatian cuisine, including fresh poached "Egg in a Jar" and grilled diver scallops. It was just the right kind of quick yet sophisticated refresher you need after two hours of digesting modern art.
From there, it was a quick dash across the street to the MoMA store to peruse the tantalizing design objects—many of which are meant to adorn the modern kitchen. There was plenty of gear worth coveting: nesting prep/measuring bowls designed by Mario Batali, the ingenious folding cutting board, and a Richard Sapper kitchen timer that is actually included in the museum's permanent collection. Of course, you'll also find quite a few gorgeous pieces for displaying you own culinary arts—the MoMA store's selection of platters and trays is a pleasure to behold, and an even greater pleasure to purchase.
Those of you interested in starting a food blog of your own—or current bloggers who just want to learn more—might be interested in class taught by Matt Armendariz (mattbites.com; that's him at right).
Taking place July 15 (1:30 to 3:30 p.m.) at the Whole Foods Bowery location in New York City, Armendariz's lecture and demo "will discuss what food blogging is and how it has changed the landscape of food writing and accessibility. He'll also discuss what to blog about, how to take better food photos, and the basics of food styling." (Sign up here.)
I'm particularly interested in Armendariz's tips on photography and food styling, since he's adept at creating beautiful shots. [via Matt Bites]
This Thursday in New York City, Water Taxi Beach is kicking off its inaugural food film series with Hamburger America, a burger documentary we've excerpted here on Serious Eats, in addition to other shorts about food.
On Friday, the series continues with a documentary on Las Vegas buffets. Saturday brings a date with asparagus.
To go with the films, various dishes will be paired with the entertainment. Admission to the movies is free, but the food will cost you. Food tickets here.
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
There's still time to win two Bubba Passes to the Big Apple BBQ Block Party this weekend in New York City's Madison Square Park.
To enter to win this barbecue fantasy, simply tell your favorite barbecue joint here. Typical Serious Eats contest rules apply. Commenting will be open until Thursday at 6 p.m. ET. We'll announce the winner Friday morning.
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
Last week on Ed Levine Eats, I wrote about the problems I had with a blogger writing about lobster rolls and not crediting New York City restaurant Pearl Oyster Bar chef and owner Rebecca Charles as the woman who introduced the lobster roll to, and popularized it with, many New Yorkers. Unfortunately that's just the claw of the problem. In fact, there's something else going on with Pearl and its imitators that is relevant to every creative person and craftsperson in the food world and beyond.
Thanks to the good folks at Danny Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group, we're giving away two Bubba Passes to the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party taking place this Saturday and Sunday in New York City.
And that's just the tip of the ribs, because the winners will be personally escorted around the event by none other than Serious Eats overlord (and serious 'cue lover) Ed Levine. Ed will introduce you to some of the incredibly talented pit masters and yarn-spinners gathering in New York City's Madison Square Park. You'll chew the fat with legendary 'cue men Mike Mills of the 17th Street Bar and Grill, Chris Mills and Don McLemore of Big Bob Gibson's, and North Carolina pit master Ed Mitchell.
"Everyone's going to assume you know the drill, so just be careful and watch for sides of beef as they roll by on the overhead track."
That was my guide's advice before we stepped into the chilled processing facility at Master Purveyors, a meat distributor at the Hunts Point Cooperative Market in the Bronx.
The journey actually started a few weeks ago, when my guide on this recent early morning adventure, Adam Perry Lang (Daisy May's BBQ and Robert's Steakhouse), floated the idea of dragging me out to Hunts Point at 1:30 a.m. as part of a multipart series of burger posts—"burgers, from butcher to table," as I came to think of it.
Top Chef heartthrob and eventual winner Harold Dieterle's restaurant Perilla opened recently in New York City's West Village, and Season Two hottie Sam Talbot was supposed to follow suit on the Lower East Side in the middle of June with a gastropub called Spitzer's Corner. But according to Eater, he and his business partners have called it quits—they're still opening the restaurant, but he's no longer involved with the operation. Too bad, the place sounds great, and I was really looking forward to checking him, er, it, out.
(Dieterle is still the only contestant with a restaurant in Manhattan, but Season Two's Josie Malave opened her own place, Island Cafe Bar and Lounge, in Queens back in March.)
Related: Top Chef 3: Miami Vice
I have profound respect for Keith McNally's abilities as a restaurateur, but his open letter to Eater and the New York Times alleging that Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni is sexist is simply way off base.
McNally notes that Bruni has never given a female chef three stars and is therefore sexist, and furthermore that this alleged sexism is the reason Bruni gave McNally's latest restaurant, Morandi, and its chef, Jody Williams, a bad review.
On a zillion levels this is preposterous.
First, anyone who has ever dined with Bruni (I have had a couple of meals with him in the company of women) would tell you he adores women.
Second, can anyone point to a female chef in New York who has been reviewed by Bruni and given short shrift by him as a result of their gender? Sexism is still a fact of life in restaurant kitchens all over the country. I have written about this topic often while noting that other cities, such as San Francisco and New Orleans, seem more hospitable to women chef-restaurateurs. This doesn't mean, however, that McNally is barking up the right tree.
Third, it is clear that this is a thinly veiled broadside aimed at Bruni and the Times because Bruni had the audacity to give Morandi and Williams, a one-star review. I actually liked Morandi more than Bruni did. But Bruni's negative review had everything to do with the food and service there and nothing to do with sexism. And it seems irresponsible and disingenuous for McNally to suggest otherwise.
New York has a well-deserved reputation as a serious eater's paradise as you'd be well-pressed to find somewhere to live in the city that wasn't at most a five minute walk from something delicious. You can find almost everything here you want to eat here—except, strangely enough, good Mexican food, as all my friends transplanted from California, Texas and Mexico moan about endlessly. Time Out New York's Rose Palazzolo says they're all wrong and shares her list of the "tiny taquerias, restaurants and delis throughout the five boroughs" where you can get authentic South of the Border food for not much money.
(The most astonishing thing? There are three entries for Midtown Manhattan, which is generally the city's culinary wasteland. One of them is described as being inside "a dank food court"!)
Restaurants rarely open when they say they will for all sorts of reasons, but Top Chef heartthrob and eventual winner Harold Dieterle's first restaurant, Perilla, looks to be on course to open in the middle of this month, just like he said it would. According to our friends at Eater, the space in New York's West Village looks just about ready for primetime, and Perilla is already accepting reservations for May 14th on OpenTable. All you Top Chef fans from out of town, it's time to book your tables and plane tickets!
Every once in a while you get an email so passionate that all you can really do is share it, because paraphrasing would never do it justice. Here's something I received today from my pal Finn:
From: Finn
To: Lia
Subject: GromFYI
excuse my friend's, um, exuberant writing style. his gf is in italy right now and he visits fairly frequently, hence his experience with this gelato joint. he's probably serious about the dream too -- he really likes ice cream.
----- Forwarded message -----
From: Jeb
To: Finn
Subject: yotell your foodblogger friends that they should go to grom and write about it for the food-blobs RIGHT AWAY! GROM is SO FRAKING GOOD. I had a dream about it last Sundae (you catch what I did there with the 'ae'?)
The Grom causing all this excitement is an Italian gelato chain opening its very first outpost in the US this Saturday at Broadway and 76th Street in New York. We'll do what we can, Jeb! We'll do what we can.
N.B. If you'd like to send tips in, my email is lia@seriouseats.com. Exuberance, abuse of the caps lock button and even multiple exclamation points are almost always welcome.
People who visit New York City sometimes expect all the food to be expensive and hoity toity, but the truth is hundreds of thousands of people get cheap, simple, and tasty meals every single day from one of the many pushcarts on the streets. Benjamin Levisohn of the New York Daily News talked to some of the vendors to learn about the economics of pushcarts.
One of the men he spoke to, Mohamad Ali, spent six years working at someone else's cart in Midtown, saving up the money to buy his own: "It wasn't cheap: The city only charges $200 for a permit, but with the number that are issued capped at 3,000, there's a thriving secondary market for the documents. Ali paid $6,000 for his permit." He then spent a whopping $16,000 on the cart itself, a custom deluxe model from a metal shop in Queens that specializes in carts. It's a big investment but far less than he'd spend on opening a restaurant; Ali can afford an apartment in Jersey City for his family, and he likes the freedom of being his own boss. [via Eater]
Also: forget the Tony Awards, the best awards show in the city has got to be The Vendy Awards, "an Iron Chef-style cookoff & awards ceremony to honor the city's best street food vendors while also recognizing the contributions that all street vendors make to New York City's rich cultural (and culinary) life." The Third Annual Vendys are scheduled for this September.
I am thrilled to be once again blab-equing at a Big Apple Barbecue Block Party panel June 9–10 in Madison Square Park in New York City. Joining me and the usual barbecue addicts John T. Edge, Lolis Eric Elie, and Peter Kaminsky is none other than Republican almost–presidential candidate Fred Thompson. No word yet on whether Sam Waterston will be appearing on a panel as well.
Photograph from WikiMedia
According to the late, great Johnny Apple, Singapore has the best street food in the world. I salivated after reading Johnny's piece about it in the New York Times:
But Singapore already has gastronomic attractions aplenty. Start with its unmatched street food — chili crabs and chicken rice, laksa and satay and fish head curry — served in hundreds of hawkers’ stalls. Fast, cheap and delicious, its hygiene is certified by the ever-vigilant Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources. (K. F. Seetoh’s exhaustive guidebook, Makansutra, will lead you to the top practitioners.)
Sounds good, don't you think? Sadly, I knew I wasn't headed to Singapore any time soon, so I had given up hope of trying what sounded like mouthwatering stuff. Until now.
On Saturday, April 21, the inaugural Singapore Day event will take place in Central Park here in New York. A hawker center with street stalls will be set up, offering some seriously delicious sounding dishes. (We'll be highlighting these dishes in anticipation as the week goes by here on the site.)
The Serious Eats team plans on attending the fair, which begins at 10:30 a.m.. If you live in the New York City area or plan on visiting, you can "chope" your reservation here.
For more on Singapore eats, the blog Chubby Hubby is an excellent, hunger-inducing resource.
Update: Unfortunately, it appears that between this morning and just recently, Singapore Day reservations have all been spoken for. We'll call the Overseas Singaporean Unit tomorrow and find out if it really is full.
Kim Severson of the New York Times checks in on the nation's first high school dedicated to the food business, Food and Finance High School in New York City. What a brilliant idea, given the explosive growth in restaurant-related jobs all over the world.
They learn math by measuring ingredients for a cake or by writing a business plan for a restaurant. They can earn science credits by raising bok choy hydroponically and tending to tanks of tilapia designed by a scientist from the Cornell University Cooperative Extension.
That's my kind of curriculum. One only hopes that other school systems around the country follow suit.
Every week, New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni comes up with a sentence (or two) or a phrase in his review that's so delicious it deserves a Serious Eats shout-out.
Today's review of E.U. featured the following: "At some point I began to brace for a hailstorm, and to wonder if the locusts would sweep in after that. The E.U. was plagued, on a scale that was almost biblical."
Kim Severson has a terrific story about the mayor of New York City's food initiatives in today's New York Times. Severson laid out all the issues well, and clearly did a ton of reporting, and yet there wasn't one quote from Mayor Michael Bloomberg himself. According to the story, "The mayor declined an interview with the New York Times on this subject and has never presented an overarching view on food policy." I sent Kim an e-mail asking her why she thought Bloomberg wouldn't be interviewed on the subject of food. Her response? "Hard to say. Even getting time with Mr. Thomases (a NYC official charged with co-ordinating the city's policies on food) was difficult. I assume it is because they really don't know what they think about food policy yet."
Perhaps my favorite quote in the piece came from a former NYC mayor, Ed Koch. Severson paraphrases Koch: "Don't forget that eating is about pleasure, and food is supposed to taste good." The piece ends with a direct quote from Koch: "You don't want to leave food policy to a doctor. Because a doctor cuts out everything."
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.
