Last fall, in the beginning of my first year in New York, I discovered the Vendy awards. Sponsored by the Urban Justice Center, the awards honor the city's best street vendors. I was particularly interested because of Mohammed Rahman, proprietor of the Kwik Meal cart on 45th Street and Sixth Avenue.
On some days, when I had a little extra cash, I'd grab my lunch at Mohammed's stand. While his menu was, ostensibly, the same as most other halal vendors, Mohammed had previously worked at the Russian Tea Room, and his classical background showed through. His genius lay in the little details, like the green papaya marinade that he used for his lamb, the basmati rice that he served it on, and the intricate spicing that made it truly unique. Although the 2007 Vendy ultimately went to Thiru "Dosa Man" Kumar, Mohammed still reigns high in my personal vendor pantheon. After all, he introduced me to the world of gourmet street food.
A new report shouldn't be the least bit surprising, but it is definitely sad.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest has published a new study about the reality of kids' menus, which is jam-packed with fatty doom. They've found that 93% of the kid' options exceed the 430 calories (a third of the recommended daily calories for children from 4-8) at 13 big US chains like Taco Bell, KFC, and Burger King. And they're not talking about 10 or 20 calories over.
For example, a "Big Kids" meal with a double cheeseburger, fries, and chocolate milk at Burger King weighs in at 910 calories -- which is over half the calories a kid should take in for one day. Chilis has one that's over 1,000 calories. It's just a sea of fat to weigh down on the little ones. Also beware of those who refuse to release nutritional information like: Applebee's, TGI Friday's, Outback, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, and IHOP.
But if you're looking for something better -- Subway led the pack with its refusal to give soft drinks with kids' meals and only a third of their meals exceed 430 calories.
While I pride myself on my willingness to accept a weird culinary challenge, this trait has led me to put more than a few strange things into my mouth. Codfish pancakes? No problem! Raw fish in Tijuana? Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. Scorpion vodka? Slightly chitinous tasting, but it did the job. Rendered pork fat on toast? Well, once was enough...
Recently, however, an Asylum post about weird ice creams made me realize that there might be limits to what I'm willing to consume. Forget red bean ice cream and wasabi sorbet; those are just the table stakes, the bare minimum that you need to get through the door of bizarre frozen desserts. For something really different, try bacon and egg ice cream from The Fat Duck, a British restaurant. If that doesn't float your boat, how about a frozen dessert made from horse flesh, or perhaps a nice bowl of Japanese ox tongue ice cream? If you're in the mood for something a little more savory, there's always Rosa Mexicano's Tomato Habañero sorbet or their avocado, strawberry and white chocolate ice cream!
Okay, I'll admit it: I might be going down to Rosa Mexicano to try a few of these out. After all, the place has never failed me before and there are few culinary horrors that can't be rectified by the addition of a pomegranate margarita. That having been said, it'll take more than a couple of glasses of sake to put a double scoop of frozen ox tongue anywhere near my mouth!
Last night I went to a party at James, a lovely little restaurant in the Italian Market section of Philadelphia. It was in celebration of the fact that the chef and co-owner James Burke had been named one of Food & Wine Magazine's Best New Chefs for 2008. It was a far swankier event than I am accustomed to attending, but ended up being lots of fun (even though I forgot to change out of my flip flops before I left the house and so spent some time feeling embarrassed about my flat, plastic shoes).
One of the hits of the evening was a signature drink (essentially a fancified gin and tonic) that they whipped up for the evening, called Hendrick's and Honeydew. Made with fresh honeydew and garnished with a sprig of thyme and a bit of the melon, it was refreshing and lovely, perfect for a swampy summer evening. Check out the recipe after the jump.
Unlike Manhattan, which is revered for its cuisine, or Queens, which is famed for its ethnic variety, the Bronx is known for its outstanding little Italy, its collection of Puerto Rican cuchifrito joints, and little else. However, in my constant search for the ultimate neighborhood restaurant, I sometimes find wonderful little gems. A few months ago, I wandered into the provocatively-named "Pisac: Peruvian Food and Pizza." Having tried a few Peruvian dishes in college, I was eager to try some more, and Pisac seemed like the kind of hole-in-the-wall joint that ends up becoming a favorite.
Over the last few months, my wife and I have made Pisac a regular hangout. In the process, we've discovered the wonders of chicha morada, a Peruvian purple-corn drink that is simultaneously sweet, spicy, and fruity. In addition to this, it contains a dizzying array of juices that makes it into something of a Peruvian cure-all. In fact, the patrons of Pisac constantly claim that a combination of chicha, ceviche, and Peruvian lime/onion sauce can cure everything from an underactive libido to leprosy.
There are some people who it is just plain good to know. When you're in college, for example, the guy with a truck is incredibly helpful, and when you go in to business, the understanding accountant and the slightly unethical lawyer are almost necessities.
A few years ago, my friend John became one of these fabulously helpful people. A lifelong resident of southwest Virginia and a trained chemist, John had a skill set that was uniquely wonderful: he knew how to get hold of moonshine, and he knew how to test it for impurities. While the grain liquor (or "likker," if you prefer) that I got from John wasn't all that cheap, it was completely flavorless, and I soon discovered that it made the perfect carrier for various fruits. Within a couple of months, I had a collection of incredibly delicious infused cordials that I would mix with seltzer or tonic water to produce light, moderately alcoholic spritzers with insanely pure tastes.
According to the Dallas/Ft. Worth NBC affiliate station, Bennigan's, a nationwide restaurant chain with nearly 800 locations, is closing the doors on all their stores, effective immediately. Calls to the the national headquarters, located in Plano, TX, are going unanswered and managers have been asked to call their staff members to tell them not to come in.
Upon hearing that they were shutting down, I placed a call to Philadelphia's local Bennigan's. My call was answered on the second ring, and while there was definitely noise of activity on the other end of the line, the woman who answered my call confirmed that they were closed for business as well.
I've never eaten at a Bennigan's, so I can't speak to the food, but my heart does go out to all the people who will lose their jobs because of this closure. How do the rest of you feel about the sudden closing of this chain?
Soft-serve gets a makeover at upscale ice cream joints. Think spiced cantaloupe topping, balsalmic cherries, a "creamsicle" of white nectarine granita and jasmine tea soft-serve.
The Slow Food movement plans a Labor Day Slow Food Nation festival, to be the "Woodstock" of food festivals. Hope they bring more porta-potties than the original.
The Rutgers Tomato Project brings back the Jersey tomato.
The Minimalist does a no-bake summer cheesecake with blueberries.
In some sectors, it's practically de rigueur (and awfully hilarious) to rip on the rarefied findings of NY Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni, but I've gotta say I tend to dig his indignation as expressed through the fewer-holds-barred medium of the website's Diner's Journal. I certainly jibe with his notions of the judiciously applied dress code and the diner's right to doggie bags, but I'm almost irrationally delighted by his use of the bully pulpit to call out the stealthy price jabbings of high-end restaurants.
He specifically cites the same outrageous charges (his boiling point is $7, mine was $6) for postprandial tea that I'd kvetched about a while back. Nothing falutin', not a monkey-harvested Pur-eh or shade-grown sencha -- just in his case a mint T-brand tea (which tea purists would prefer we refer to as a "tisane" rather than a tea as it's actually an herbal infusion, but I digress) which at $17.95 for 1.76 oz tin, retail, would surely produce, uh, more than 2.56 cups. Yes, service, water heating, cups, rent, etc. don't come for free but still, the whole enterprise is quite crabby-making in this strained economy.
Mr. Bruni, we salute your foray into the consumer advocacy front and will be following the "That Costs What?!?" series juuuust as soon as you get that pesky RSS tag fixed ravenously.
Have you ever thought about real chefs, from high ranked restaurants, and wondered where they like to eat? Well, Bloomberg.com writer Richard Vines has answered.
He spoke to a multitude of well known chefs, mainly from London, and asked them what their favorite restaurants were. Did you know, for example, that Alain Ducasse loves a sushi restaurant in Tokyo called Sushishou? Richard Corrigan of Bentley's adores Gambero Rosso in San Vincenzo, Italy. Gordon Ramsay gave his choice, too, but you'll just have to read the whole story to find that out.
Most of the chefs on Mr. Vines list name restaurants in France as their absolute favorite. I'm not saying you need to jet off to France, Italy, Japan, or wherever, right now, but if you happen to have travel plans for any of those locations you may have just found one more point of interest to visit. I think a few of the restaurants mentioned have just landed on my "to visit" list.
Behold the Whatafarm burger, which according to alanbeam.net, via about.blank is "a burger ordered from the Whataburger chain and includes chicken, egg, cheese and bacon. 2 parts cow, 2 parts chicken, 1 part pig."
I'm all for the orgiastic multi-species chow down, what with my penchant for Kentucky burgoo (2 formats of cow -- old and young, lamb, pig, and chicken) and applaud the orderers for their gastronomic gumption. If I were being all harrumphy about it, I could note that the menu offers pig in sausage form and a fish filet as well and they opted for neither, but hey - Michelangelo didn't knock out the Sistine Chapel on his first jaunt up the scaffolding.
We salute you with all hooves, claws and trotters up!
That's right , a wasabi ice pop to function as both a palate-cleanser and a tart dessert. According to this week's New York magazine, Masaharu Morimoto, formerly on the Food Network's television show Iron Chef, just put this popsicle on his menu at Morimoto. It is made with fresh wasabi rather than wasabi powder which is much spicier.
It's not everyday that you find a spice being used in a dessert that is supposed to cool you down. Could this be the start of a new trend?
I haven't tried this wasabi popsicle yet. If any of you have, let me know your thoughts.
Life is (naturally) sweet for Gramercy Tavern Executive Chef Michael Anthony. Not only is he recently married, but his restaurant was bestowed the 2008 James Beard Award for Outstanding Restaurant, and he just returned from the Union Square farmer's market in NYC with fresh sugar snap peas for dinner. Does it get any better than this? Read on.
Congratulations on winning the James Beard Award for Outstanding Restaurant. How has life slash the restaurant changed since winning the award this year?
Hold on – I'm actually trying to get through the door here. I just finished shopping at the farmers market.
No worries. Take your time.
The restaurant has had an unbelievable sense of electricity since the Beard Awards. It was nice to see friends and familiar faces from around the country at the awards. They made us feel that there are a lot of people in the industry pulling for the restaurant. People have come to the restaurant to congratulate us in person. The support was felt by a very widespread audience in the industry and around the city.
Today, the Washington Post published an article discussing the effect of the economy on area restaurants. It's not a pretty story. Not only do ingredients cost more, but people are eating at home more often than they used to. There's no question that fine dining restaurants are suffering, and that they're adjusting their menus and business strategies to cope.
On the flip side, however, the article mentioned that some less expensive restaurants are actually doing well. Personally, I think I'm in the camp of people going out less frequently, but still attending the restaurants that I would ordinarily attend. I'd rather save up for a few nice meals than eat out regularly at places that I don't love. Check out the article if you have a minute, and let us know what you think!
When talking about steaks, I take the word "big" very seriously. I'm the girl who was raised on huge cuts of prime rib, and would be offended when waiters would challenge my 20+ ounce beef order. Still, the one thing that has always remained out of my reach was the epic, huge, "dare you to eat it all yourself" piece of steak. I so desperately want to take on that dare, so is it wrong of me to think that the 120-oz porterhouse for six that's being offered at the new Brand steakhouse in Las Vegas is perfect for just me?
Yes, steak fans, that is just one of the many steak offerings coming from the new restaurant, nestled on the Monte Carlo's casino floor. The menu, created by chef Brian Massie, boasts even more tasty steak options like an oversized, Bone-In and dry-aged Nebraska steak, Kobe short ribs and burgers, plus fish, sides, and appetizers like the delicious-sounding King Crab Scampi.
I'm bummed that this place wasn't around when I visited Las Vegas last year, but if any of you readers happen to check it out, let me know how it is. And if you're interested in more information, you can check out the press release after the jump.
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Last fall, in the beginning of my first year in New York, I discovered the Vendy awards. Sponsored by the Urban Justice Center, the awards honor the city's best street vendors. I was particularly interested because of Mohammed Rahman, proprietor of the Kwik Meal cart on 45th Street and Sixth Avenue. 
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While I pride myself on my willingness to accept a weird culinary challenge, this trait has led me to put more than a few strange things into my mouth. Codfish pancakes? No problem! Raw fish in Tijuana? Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. Scorpion vodka? Slightly chitinous tasting, but it did the job. Rendered pork fat on toast? Well, once was enough...
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Unlike Manhattan, which is revered for its cuisine, or Queens, which is famed for its ethnic variety, the Bronx is known for its outstanding little Italy, its collection of Puerto Rican cuchifrito joints, and little else. However, in my constant search for the ultimate neighborhood restaurant, I sometimes find wonderful little gems. A few months ago, I wandered into the provocatively-named "Pisac: Peruvian Food and Pizza." Having tried a few Peruvian dishes in college, I was eager to try some more, and Pisac seemed like the kind of hole-in-the-wall joint that ends up becoming a favorite..jpg)
There are some people who it is just plain good to know. When you're in college, for example, the guy with a truck is incredibly helpful, and when you go in to business, the understanding accountant and the slightly unethical lawyer are almost necessities. 
In some sectors, it's practically de rigueur (and 
Have you ever thought about real chefs, from high ranked restaurants, and wondered where they like to eat? Well, 
Life is (naturally) sweet for
Today, the 
Chocolate-stuffed bananas on the grill
Tyler Florence welcomes new daughter
Beware kids' menus!
