The breads from all the venders were very, very good. Thanks Jimmy! The nut & rhubarb from Boucheron, Daniel's guy, Jimmy (the Lemon & Kalmatta way cool) & this new to come KO Kafe with the sauerkraut bread is going to make a reuben happy. I second the Bent Sponn & that awesome Ricotta ice cream. Man, that with a little caramel sauce & whipped cream....send me home!!!
I agree if it is cooked to death & Five Guys is, then what's the whoop. Shake Shack is a thin burger, but can be cooked any way you want. A real Cal style burger, but the fries are not that bad, as a matter of fact for a frozen frie pretty good.
It would be nice if they had a newly aired show, not the same repeat over & over again. I know Scripps wants "evergreen" programming, but it has become ridiculous. They are going to put on Pierre Freney, the Frugal Gourmet & repeats of dining out soon. Diners, Drive ins & Dives is good, but some of these places are a real stretch....they can go prettey low & disgusting. The trhow downs are not bad, but this Robin Miller & Sandra Lee with the outfit matching the kitchen is just wrong! Rachel Ray is phoning in her shows & Iron Chef America is soon going to have the chef from the Olive Garden on.
Taim, 22 Waverly, the best falafels in NY. The fries with aoili/safron dip is killer too. The young Israeli couple that own the place work all day & night with a great care for freshness & thus the steady flow of business. Only a few seats, but the flow is constant.
Suenos on 18th Street. Sue Torres finds unusual peppers & sustainable Mexican twists.
We agree Ed. We have never felt more ripped off then going to a restaurant for Valentine's Day. What we have done for the last 14 years is go out for Sunday brunch on a Sunday nearest to Valentine's Day. For the first several years we went to Cafe Des Artiste, but when they had their kitchen fire, we went to the River Cafe in Brooklyn and then returned to Cafe Des Artiste. The last several years we have turned to Five Points on Great Jones Street. They make us feel at home and they have the best brunch in the City. We have a 9 year-old daughter & for the past nine years she has joined us. My girls are my Valentine's!
We love a lot of restaurants in the city, but we feel that the menus are forced, the prices are inflated & the chefs or staff would rather be off with their loved ones!
Having dined at some of America's "best" restaurants including The French Laundry, Gallileo, Masa, L'Orangie (sp), Joe's Stone Crab, Radius, Al Forno, Lutece, LeCirque, Daniel, etc. Some have been grat and some have been OK, but over the years ingredients have become increasingly expensive, as has real estate & payrolls. The question of value vs. quality is not a simple one, but here is some perspective. Pizza - Franny's vs. Grimaldi's - Grimaldi's is a full size pizza with quality ingredients and enough of them (yes, a pizza is $16, but you will leave full) Franny's is a small personal size uncut pizza (yes, a pizza is $16, but you will leave hungry as it has fine quality ingredients, but not much of them) I had to get a slice somewhere after eating here. A Subway sandwich vs. a hero from Alidoro for about the same price, both will fill you up, but quality - no contest! A burger from hamburger heaven and a hamburger from BLT Burger - same price, but no contest. Go to Westville for a whole trout for $16 or a mediocre fish house and pay $25. Yes, you will have a table cloth, but an inferior fish and why did you go out to eat to begin with? A homemade gnocchi @ MaxSoha for $9.95 or Olive Garden pasta for more money and lesser quality. Look for quality and craftsmanship when you dine. It could be a great hot dog or pizza or hamburger or it can be a shortrib or lobster - cheap can mean cheap, but care what you put in your stomach and know how to compare apples to apples. Are there expensive restaurants that merit big dollars, yes, but make sure the chef who's cooking you are paying for is in the kitchen. Ouest, A Voce, Fiamma, Park Avenue (season), Union Square Cafe, all deserve a nod because the chef is in & running the show...pride = value.
We stopped going to Coals two years ago when we had soggy, cold, and moisture ladden pizza on three straight ocassions. On one of the visits we had soup that was ice cold & whrn we told the waitress she begrugonedly took it to get heated up & then returned it in a hasty drop on the table. Yeah, a real pleasure. We love grilled pizza from Al Forno or Gonzo and I would sooner go to a Piper's Kilt for a burger....weak man, very weak....
Sorry Ed, but Papaya King has long lost it's snap. The dogs have changed and are barely cooked these days. The drinks have that watered down taste too. Go to Sparky's or Crif Dog for that fresh hot dog taste. The buns atre fresh and the shakes and fries at Sparky's are terrific too.
The deli at Ben's is OK, but nothing more. The pastrami & corned beef at Arties is superior. There is less salt & more tender of a taste. Cole Slaw & potato salds at Arties is just an added bonus.
The most important element of cooking is respect of ingredient and it's balance with technique. You can make great food with poor ingredients with extrodinary skill, but with great ingredients and mediocre skills, you can still pull off a decent dish. If you have poor quality ingredients and barely competent skills, then you will never have a great (never mind good) dish. A cook also needs to taste what they are cooking before they are finished to know where they are going and when it will be finished.
I'm a PSer and agree re Johhny Mack's but also agree with Adam on Bonnie's - it definitely is way over-charred and tastes exactly like whatever is on the grill top. Have to try Bar Toto - haven't been.
But the best burger in PS is at Stone Park Cafe - Bar None!
I can't be the only one who likes Guy Fieri. I think most people who don't like him are women. Guy is a guy's guy cooking guy food for guys. He does stuff like hot dogs smothered with spicy meat sauce. And beer-can chicken. I can see how that kind of thing won't appeal to most women.
Personality-wise, he's loud and immature, like a too-successful frat boy. But who cares? He's enthusiastic about what he does and he communicates that enthusiasm well.
#1 Alton, #2 Ina - love her style and her kitchen!, #4 Tyler - he's cute and his food looks great, #4 Bobby Flay - Throwdown, #5 Jamie - I liked his old show too when he cooked in the european style kitchen with the tiny fridge.
Sandra Lee is one of the reasons why remotes were invented - so I can quickly change the channel!!
I would love to see Ina and Paula together. Head-to-head, teamed as "buddies"--the contrast between Ina's haute-New York and Paula down-home Savannah just seems so funny and interesting to me. Southern-boy Alton could assist Paula and Manhattan-bred Bobby Flay could help Ina.
Sorry. I appear to be having one of those "If I was an Executive in Charge of Programming" fantasies.
So I like Bobby, Paula, Ina and most of all Alton. I agree with all the people who said they've learned from Alton--whenever I have a new ingredient with which I haven't worked before, I see if Alton has a recipe/technique for it. And I love how many of his shows start at Kroger's or Bed Bath and Beyond, because that's where I do all my shopping and it makes it very accessible.
I also love Iron Chef America. I agree with the people who said the "Challenge" shows are time-wasters. And Guy Fieri should be shot out of a cannon. And hey, whatever happened to charming Amy Findley?
Alton is by far at the top--GE and FoA are two of our few "appointment viewing" series, and he's responsible for about 80% of my cooking skills that I didn't pick up from a relative.
2nd tier, I.E. the show's we'll watch if they're on when we flip past, would be Paula Deen, Molto Mario, Jamie Oliver (mmm), Iron Chef America (if it's an interesting ingredient/challenger), the current reruns of A Cook's Tour, Unwrapped (Marc Summers is fun) and occasionally 30 minute meals if she's doing something interesting (most of her stuff I already know, but I've picked up a timesaving tip or two)
Hate: Dinner "Slightly Difficult", Guy "Fee-eddi" (eyeroll), and most of the travel/competition shows that don't feature Alton ;-)
Dark Lord of the Sith: Sandra Lee
Alton Brown for being unabashedly and delightfully technical. And zany. Bee puppets! He uses honeybee puppets! Amazing.
I like Essence of Emeril. When you can watch Emeril cook without having to be a performer for a live audience, you can trully appreciate his passion for food (both for the ingredients and techniques of preparing them) and for the people who work for him. He's a class act. Besides that, I find myself looking to Fine Living and PBS for cooking shows.
ROFLMAO @ chiff, as usual!
I like Ina and Alton first and foremost. I'll watch them every time they're on unless it is a repeat.
I'm liking Jamie Oliver more than I did when he was first on TV. I love his passion for food- caught a snippet of the ep where he went wild 'shroom hunting with his 'mate'. Loved it!
I've started watching Molto Mario on Fine Living and I'm liking him more and more, too. I love how he says 'season agressively'!
I like Tyler Florence but can't stand his incessant use of "Ok" and "all right" as he's explaining something. He sort of mutters it so it probably doesn't bother anyone else and I'm just an over-observant weirdo....
I also watch SLop for entertainment value. She truly causes my head to want to burst. "Quasi-homemade meals for people who like to pretend that they've cooked". That's what her show should be called.
@brooke: "...every time I watch Ace of Cakes I tell my hubby: "imagine how much fun it must be to work there!"
My BF went on their website after I said, "I'd intern there for free." He proceeded to tell me (sadly) that they are not accepting interns, help, assistants, etc. and they're about a year out on cakes. (BF is a real gem, I think he went on the site to try to get me a gig...LOL.)
@pourgirl: "Oh, and Sandra Lee. She's insane, yet pathetic."
Sister, you owe me a keyboard. That line sent my beverage through my nose.
Also @pourgirl: "Hate - shows based on chefs running around frantically and shouting (Dinner Impossible, anything with Guy in it), and those endless Las Vegas competitions (World's Fruitiest Fruitcake Shaped Like a Disney Character), where the fruitcake ends up splattered on the floor during the pointless "Move the Fruitcake" phase. "
Right on so many levels. #1 - the "running around chef" shows. (Maybe with the exception of Iron Chef.) This is the reason I don't watch Ramsay or Top Chef. It's so much running around and drama, the whole "cooking" aspect is lost. ("Drama" also accounts for why I didn't like the early reality TV show "The Restaurant.")
#2 - Cakes shaped like WTFever, then have to be moved. Come on. If any self respecting baker made a cake that had such fragile decorations on it, certainly they'd be applied at the venue where the cake was to be served. The whole "moving the cake" thing is so utterly stupid and unrealistic.
@perkymac: "Sandra Lee for the shock factor and sheer entertainment value. I love to try to mimic her bizarre way of talking and I'm getting pretty good."
LOLOL! I participate on another site and half the time when we're discussing Shamdra, we use her phoenetic spellings. i.e. "Groshery store;" "russipes" and "rose peppers." And don't forget the "whoot" she throws in every now and again. For me it's the word "nice." She inserts that word wherever she has a gap in dialogue as though every on camera second needs to be filled in with blabber. If she'd demo something halfway worthwhile, she could actually do it without speaking a word!
Subscribe to our feeds:
All of Serious Eats, Talk, Required Eating, Videos, Eating Out, Recipes, New York
Subscribe by email:
Website:
Location:
About:
Favorite foods:
Last bite on earth: