Uptown Kitchen

Suburban Homesick Blues

2009-02-28T20:41:00.010-05:00

This car represents our lifestyle in Manhattan:

Greg and I are grateful for the digs in Scarsdale during our renovation, but we are suffering through an acute case of Suburban Homesick Blues. Here are the top 10 things we miss about New York City living.
#1 Our friends. We're out in exile here. We might as well have moved to Kansas.
#2 Walking to work. We used to feel so carbon neutral.
#3 Reasonably priced groceries. Okay. We know, groceries in Manhattan are out of control as compared to the rest of the country...but Westchester County is worse!
#4 Cultural events. Not that we are great participators, but the option is always there when you live in New York City.
#5 Street life. New restaurants have come and gone, and we have missed it all.
#6 Public transportation. Metro North is great, but it doesn't run 24/7, ya know?
#7 The mail chute that's next to our elevator. We don't even know how to mail from our apartment here. And the mailman doesn't even know we exist. Our mailman in NYC knows every member of our family, maiden names, and last two addresses.
#8 Pizza. Totonno's Yonkers doesn't make the cut.
#9 Dinner. We don't go to dinner out anymore--and with the price of groceries, it's not that much more expensive.
#10 Our neighbors. Yes, they may be New Yorkers, and ignore us 99% of the time, but we miss 'em just the same.

This car represents our lifestyle in suburbia:

Uptown Kitchen--The Walls are Down

2008-12-11T19:21:00.002-05:00

We have started phase 1 of our renovation!

What To Do With Surplus Zucchini?

2008-11-17T12:22:00.005-05:00

Sarah and I have been over this dilemma several times.

We tried a zillion different recipes, and many strategies for passing the zucchini off to somebody else, or "nipping it in the bud" by picking the flowers.

Here's one we never thought of:

Simply cut them into spears and pass them off onto the hip downtown party set.

My buddy Chris and I crashed an Africa-themed party for Eve Ensler (the Vagina Monologues lady), and were surprised to find that all the intellectuals and people-about-town were mad about zucchini.

We're thinking about using this strategy to get rid of surplus items around the home. Simply host an exotically-themed party, invite the hip, the mod, and the fashionable, and pass off your worthless junk as party favors.

Sookk Far Sookk Good

2008-11-15T21:30:00.010-05:00

Greg and I ventured into Sookk tonight. It is a Thai restaurant that specializes in "Bangkok/Yaowarat Cuisine." Basically it's an Asian fusion restaurant and their specialty is the street food you find in Bangkok.

We were going to go with Christina, a couple of months ago, back when it was a BYOB place, but we ended up going to dinner in Williamsburg, which is never what it's cracked up to be. Tonight we were meeting a friend, and as we were standing outside, Greg began to protest.

"It ain't my kind of place," he said. "Too trendy."

That is true. Sookk has lots of lamps hanging from the ceiling, dark wood, skinny tables, and it's dark inside.

We were looking for a compromise restaurant. I wanted moules frites, and Greg wanted something cheap.

"But look," I said, peering closely at the menu, "The sign says beer. Buy one get one free!"

In we went.

Greg ordered his first two beers and I studied the drinks menu. I ordered a sparkling wine with lychee syrup, which was 3 dollars off during their happy hour. Happy hour is every day from 5 until 7:30. At $3.25 a pop for a cocktail, and $2.50 a beer, this is a very good deal indeed.

For appetizers we had sesame tofu, served with a sweet chili dipping sauce and chive cakes served with a "ginger sauce" that was unmistakeably made mostly of Worcestershire sauce. Both were mildly spicey, with the tofu winning out for flavor. The chive cakes were missing the funky tang that usually goes along with Asian chives, and so were a bit blah. I wasn't a fan of either sauce, though. I thought the red was too cloying and the black was too Worcestershirey.

For dinner Greg had steamed shrimps in a clay pot. He thought his dish was very tasty, and the shrimp was perfectly cooked. I, still in the spirit of compromise, and still seriously craving my moules frites, ordered a dish called mussel turnip cake. Accompanying were bean sprouts, scallions, and egg. The dish, overall, was kind of a mess, with the sauce and mussels overwhelming the turnip cakes. I had imagined something like a turnip latke, but instead got bland cakes that looked like soggy fish fingers and had very little flavor.

It was probably my fault for ordering this dish. I was too hungry for experimentation and should have stuck with the Pad Thai.

We skipped the desert menu and instead ate the lychees that came in my cocktail, which was the highlight of my meal.

On one last note, the service was fast and friendly and the music was nice but unobtrusive, with the volume turned down low enough that you can actually have a conversation.

A Duck Walks into a Bar

2008-11-14T19:38:00.013-05:00

Okay, so I don't remember the punch line for that one. I just looked it up and found a rather racy site involving a duck puppet and a cute young girl....Why?

I only know one joke by heart, but I only save it for the most perfect occasions.

Greg and I are trying not to be spendy, especially when it comes to food. You can really run up a tab at the restaurants here. We're already spending large sums of money storing our possessions at Manhattan Mini-Storage (which charges Manhattan prices, but also runs really cool political ads...if you're a liberal, and let's face it, 90% of the people in my neighborhood are). Trips to the grocery store are at least $20 in Manhattan, even if you're using your D'Ag card and buying milk and bread.

So, how have we gone budget? As only a true Manhattanites can---we are eating duck. By my math, our meal tonight only cost $5 per person, which is very budgetary indeed.

I had never cooked duck before, but I did know one rule: don't over cook it.

The duck breast was $7. I thought it was a good deal, since most of the duck meat is in the breast. The whole duck was over $25. I already had a potato, 1/2 cup rice (which I ruined by oversalting), Cassis (for Kir Royales, of course), 2 shallots, red wine vinegar, and Aunt Hanna's peach jam (for the Cassis compote).

I ran into a snag with the recipe I used from the Food Network (The Surreal Gourmet if anyone is judging). It called for boneless duck breasts, but honestly, is that a regular thing in the world of duck eating? I ignored that part of the recipe, which caused some stress, but I was able to work through it.

I sauteed them fat side down for six minutes, then took them out of the pan. I drained the pan of duck fat, made the compote, diced the potato and put it in to par boil, rested the duck (which wasn't part of the recipe, but I was stalling because Greg said he wasn't hungry).

Suddenly, Greg appeared in the kitchen claiming ravenousness. He rummaged around in the fridge and found a block of cheese from Murray's Cheese Shop in the Village.

Meanwhile, I was wrestling with the duck, having realized that it must be deboned before I could slice it properly. It was mostly raw, even though I had baked in the oven for the requisite 6 minutes. I hacked and sliced and pulled the meat off of the bone, and threw it on our baking stone for another couple of minutes. Crisis averted.

It all cooked up to a fine and elegant meal, which we ate standing up in the kitchen since we have no sit-down dining options at the moment.

We ate on 2 pieces of fine Bernardaud china because last Saturday I finally tired of eating out of plastic to-go boxes and added two bowls to my china collection. That wasn't in budget, but it sure made me feel good.

Pour it Down the Drain

2008-11-11T07:55:00.011-05:00

We have so many new restaurants and bars in our neighborhood that we can't keep up. There's Campo on Broadway and 113th (used to be Pertutti), Community Food and Juice (so so), Wondee Siam V on Amsterdam, Bar 106 on Amsterdam, Kebab and Curry just returned to 105 and Amsterdam after a short stint as Mofongo Depot, Tropical Sensation (thumbs up, on Amsterdam and 107) and maybe a couple others that I've forgotton. Last night we stopped in at the Pourhouse, which is on Amsterdam and 108th street.

We had high hopes for the Pourhouse. Greg and I are looking for a good neighborhood watering hole--one with big TVs, decent food, and Leinenkugel's Honey Weiss, which just came to NYC. When you have no television and are eating out of to-go boxes, the idea of a beer and a big screen is uplifting. We've tried out a few other bars--the Lion's Head on 109 and Amsterdam is a bit too bare bones and the seats are uncomfortable, plus we always pine for our friend Tom, who is in England, when we're there. Cannon's on 107 and B'way is just too sketchy and no good, Bistro Ten 18 is too fancy and there's no television, and we heard Mario left, so the bar won't be as much fun. Sip is too-too and the drinks cost too much. 1020 pulls in too many college kids. Anyhow, what got our hopes up about the Pourhouse was an email exchange that I had with the owner. He assured me that they had ordered the Leinie's and that it was available. Last night, however, it was NOT available.

We bravely soldiered on with our meal. The Pourhouse means to attract a wild college crowd, which makes you wonder about their business plan---the Columbia student body doesn't get that wild. They do study up at Columbia. The Puerto Rican contingent isn't exactly going for it, either. It was doing solid business, but it's not exactly the jello shot crowd.

Greg and I studied the beer menu, which looks impressive, but really isn't. It's pretty predictable--major name brands. If you're a beer guy like Greg, nothing on there is surprising. Meanwhile, I really couldn't recover from the loss of my Leinie's and the waitress asking me four times for my drink order didn't help. She gave me a case of test anxiety. I ordered a Stella out of desperation, which was nice and cold. The chill, unfortunately, extended to my food. I placed what I thought was a safe order--a cheesesteak--and Greg ordered fish and chips.

My cheesesteak was cold--not cold as in just out of the refrigerator, which would have been reassuring, but cold as in it had been sitting out. I was afraid to eat it. This is how you get food poisoning. Not only that - look at the picture - the meat didn't even fill half of the bun. Plus, my french fries were cold. (Did the waitress hate me?) Greg had two measly pieces of fried fish, and his french fries were warm, so I had them for dinner. Did I mention that I was starving?

In the end we were relieved to cross the Pourhouse off of our list. With so many options in our neighborhood, we're bound to find the place that's right for us.

Blockbuster!

2008-09-11T12:52:00.004-04:00

I realize this has nothing to do with gastronomy, but I gotta get it off my chest. Sarah and I went to a show on Tuesday that was absolutely spectacular. The past few "hit" shows that we've seen have all been disappointing, and so we didn't have our hopes up for a great show.
Especially because it might invoke comparisons to Les Mis, we thought it might be a derivative show.
And if you think a Broadway musical is by definition derivative, then you'd probably think so about this one.
But we thought that this was the greatest show we've seen on Broadway in ten years. Classic, heartbreaking, tragic story. Inventive, compelling ways to tell a very complicated plot line. Music was great, actors were beautiful singers and appealing in their roles.
We don't mind if the lead actor has had a few moral questions about his backstage behavior. How many times has that happened at a Van Halen concert and nobody bats an eye?

Bouchon Bakery at Time Warner Center

2008-09-09T16:05:00.003-04:00

I'm not sure which bakeries fill out the rest of the slots, but I'm certain that Bouchon Bakery is in the top ten in Most Beautiful Pastries department.

It's kind of a fun spot, too, if you're looking for a place to sit down and relax after a hard day's shopping or sightseeing at Central Park South.

Top NYC Hot Dogs

2008-08-28T19:16:00.007-04:00

Naturally, all of these hot dogs are all-beef, otherwise they wouldn't be "NYC Hot Dogs." Also- can't have chili, (Midwestern style) can't have tomatoes, bright green relish, "sport peppers" and celery salt ("dragged through the garden" Chicago style). Otherwise, anything goes. Don't steam the bun, though. Or put poppyseeds on it. Or stick a stick through it.

7. Papaya King. $
Gray’s Papaya knock-off.

6. Crif Dogs on St. Mark’s Place. $$
All kinds of cutesy toppings and stuff. Deep-fried, wrapped in bacon, blah blah blah. More kinds of cheese than you want to think about. Cheese doesn’t belong on hot dogs, but if it did, it would come out of a can and be just “cheese.” it wouldn’t be “ swiss gruyere” or “crumbled feta” or something that you have to specify.

5. Brooklyn Diner on 57th Street. $$$
Most massive hot dog you’ve ever seen. It’s more of a full-size ring bologna without any curve to it than a hot dog. Still, it's fun and photogenic if you're in the mood for impressing somebody back home.

4. F&B (Frites & Beignets) on 23rd street $$
Tasty Belgian dogs with interesting toppings. Dogs are snappy and garlicky and good, and it's kind of fun to experiment with strange stuff you've never tried before. The fries are great too, and the beignets are worth a trip by themselves.

3. Dirty-water dogs from anyplace on a city street. $$ or $ depending on location
Sabrett’s or Nathan’s or Hebrew National or whatever, coming out of that dirty water they all taste the same. Which is pretty damn good. And it always hits the spot when you're out walking around.

2. Nathan’s Famous on the Coney Island Boardwalk. $
A legend. They do everything right.

1. Gray’s Papaya $
They’re not overwhelming. They’re the perfect size to have two. Buns are toasted on the grill but not too much to darken them. No extraneous toppings, just ketchup, mustard, sauerkraut and onions. A real New Yorker would never order more than two of those toppings at a time, but any combination of two is acceptable except maybe sauerkraut and onions. Super-cheap, the papaya drinks are fantastic. Coconut champagne too.

A Little Cheesy

2008-08-28T13:10:00.009-04:00

When I found my shopping blocked by a wall of cheese at Barzini's gourmet market on Broadway, I stopped to think about the universe, my place in it, and how I as a Wisconsin boy can make cheese a bigger part of it.
I have written before about my forays into the world of fresh mozzarella at Barino's market, Fairway, and other hot spots around town.
Joe's Dairy and Murray's Cheese Shop in Greenwich Village have garnered almost all of the cheese press in NYC for several years, but I think there are a few other places around town that deserve some acclaim. Ideal (1st Ave at 52nd St.) and Artisanal (32nd between Park and Madison) cheese shops have often showed up on best-of lists also, but I haven't investigated them. I find that every shop on the East Side is overpriced and hence don't bother. But who knows? Maybe they're good.
Bests:
1. West Side Market, 110th and Broadway
2. Fairway under the bridge @135th Street
1A. (special mozzarella-only sublisting) Barino's Market in the Bronx (see May 11 post)

Stay Away:
1. Barzini's. Sorry guys, I know you're trying, but it ain't working. Great place to buy coffee, but old, ill-handled, expensive cheese.

Zagat says that Cowgirlcreamery.com and dibruno.com both provide excellent cheeses online, but are expensive.

Photo Essay - Father-In-Law With Produce

2008-07-13T18:51:00.007-04:00

When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste:

Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,
For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,
And weep afresh love's long since cancell'd woe,
And moan the expense of many a vanish'd sight:

Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.

But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restor'd and sorrows end.

Week of Ten Thousand Zucchini

2008-07-13T17:34:00.007-04:00

So one of the reasons we haven't had an update in a while is because we're in the middle of Lee County, Virginia, abandoned with no WIFI and no high-speed internet access. Does anybody remember dial-up? As Celine Dion might say, it's all coming back to me now.
But another reason is that we've been overwhelmed with thousands of pounds of zucchini, buried with no hope of escape. On Thursday, the last day of school, and on Friday and Saturday of the week of a thousand dinners, Sarah and I spent our time when not dining out, filming "Satan Hates You" or attending deadly-dull Broadway plays (Sunday In The Park With George? I'd rather spend Saturday in a jail cell with Biff) packing up all our worldly possessions in boxes and moving them into storage. What fun!
But we eventually made it to Virginia and found, to our great delight, that our garden was a success. A success, that is, in terms of sprawling overgrown loads of inedible tasteless vegetables. Initially, we tried to keep up with them and actually eat what we harvested.
In the photo up top, you can see that we had grilled zucchini-and-squash kabobs. No secrets to that one, except we added a little sugar to the surfaces to aid in browning. More successful were the pink instant pickles we made by taking two of our large cucumbers, slicing them super-thin, chopping up an onion and and two of the small beets from the garden. Also, in the top center of the photo, you can see a bowl of green beans that represents the meager harvest from our half-runner crop.
Sarah and Gabe took turns stuffing the noxious weeds, first Sarah with her Lebanese stuffed squash with ground beef and rice, then Gabe with his Queen Noor's Nile River Boats stuffed with chicken and couscous. After the zucchini bread and zucchini fritters, we figured out the two secrets to zucchini gardening.
Secret #1: get them before the blossoms turn into zucchini. Sarah's stuffed zucchini flowers were the hit of the week. We harvested the blossoms, took out the stamen, stuffed them with ricotta cheese mixed with herbs, rolled them in egg and corn meal, then fried them in oil. Delicious, and even small zucchini attached to the blossoms can be julienned and treated similarly.
Secret #2: find a sucker to pass them off on. When Sarah and I were eating at the (one) local restaurant, we conned the proprietress into taking a good portion of the harvest off our hands.
My parents alerted me to the fact that there are strict laws regarding transporting more than 8 ounces of zucchini for passing-off purposes, but we skirted the law by obtaining consent from the victim beforehand.

Week of a Thousand Dinners

2008-06-23T21:02:00.011-04:00

I thought Sarah and I had really gone through the wringer when we had our "Week of A Thousand Soups." Sarah made a different type of labor-intensive homemade soup each night of the week. That week was a walk in the park. This week is a picnic in the park, a six-hour book club, two plays, a concert, filming a movie...

Saturday: Dinner out at Meridiana (UWS Italian) with my sister visiting from Washington
Sunday: Host a dinner party for Sarah's book club, reading Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska
Monday: Dinner out at Alouette (UWS French) to celebrate Sarah's birthday
Tuesday: Picnic @ NY Philharmonic concert in Central Park
Wednesday: Dinner at Puttanesca (Hell's Kitchen Italian) with Greg's colleagues, Sunday In The Park With George @ Lincoln Center TheaterThursday: Sarah's parents arrive from Kentucky, host them with Vietnamese or sushi
Friday: film scene for movie "Satan Hates You" (then possible celebration dinner for Sarah, post-birthday?)
Saturday: "Real" Chinatown in Flushing, NY with Sarah's parents, Uncle Bill and Aunt Yao, see a play downtown with all six of us

Epic Poetry Breeds Epic Conflict

2008-06-23T13:00:00.005-04:00

This canto of my epic poem, "Travelin' Travis" describes the steps to making an egg cream. There has been some dispute about this issue. Noted egg cream expert Dave Cook of www.eatingintranslation.com claims that the spoon should be rapidly jiggled up and down while submerged in the egg cream, not stirred round-and-round as described here. I have observed several practitioners of the round-and-round school, but none of the up-and-down faction. When we created them ourselves, we did round-and-round, and frankly, I don't see any reason to denigrate the proud tradition of the egg cream with any juvenile up-and-down-ism.

There was a diner called Key West
where somethin’ strange was cookin’
They treated him great, like a rich potentate
He thought “it’s prob’ly ‘cause I’m so good-lookin”

The soup he ordered to begin
had a big round yellow ball
Matzo, they said, unleavened bread
And he saw the writing on the wall.

He’d grow to love this new cuisine
and maybe all things Jewish.
Oh me, oh my! Corned beef on rye!
Plus pickles, one or two-ish.

And something new he’d never seen
and never heard of either
a chocolate dream called an egg cream
with a spoon used as a beater.

A squirt or two of chocolate syrup
(Fox’s U-Bet, if you have it)
Milk - a dash! Seltzer – a splash!
Then whip that spoon, dagnabbit!

You whip it up real hard, real fast
and it foams over the top.
How odd it seems, no eggs, no creams,
but once you’ve had it, you can’t stop.

Horns of a Dilemma

2008-06-22T22:20:00.002-04:00

Which One?

Sign Of Imminent Doom

2008-06-22T22:13:00.003-04:00

Our neighborhood is being subsumed by a vortex. Probably because we are cosmically undeserving of a view as nice as ours.

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes

2008-06-19T19:54:00.006-04:00

How many of us remember this movie fondly as the big-screen debuts of both George Clooney and Anthony Edwards? Especially those of us who were hormonal boys at the time and thrilled to discover the double entendre in the title?
Unfortunately there are no bikini-clad babes to distract grocers and restaurateurs from the past week's salmonella scare. NYC's health department sez we should stay away from raw plum, Roma and round red tomatoes. The feds say that Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Wyoming, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico might be infected. Really? Washington D.C.? Was that Georgetown or the Mall where the vast tomato fields have been stricken?
Florida sez they're gonna have to destroy $40 million worth. Tough luck, Florida. I'm sure that money would have gone to fair wages for legal workers on environmentally conscious farms.
I'm not one of those George Weld guys who only uses "local, free-roaming chickens and artisanal heirloom grits" in New York City. Too hard to chase down the chickens, especially on Park Avenue. But I've got to admit that the higher gas prices get, and the more industrial agribusiness gets pounded by scandals like this one, the better I'll be pleased.
I was talking to my uncle who runs a mushroom-canning business in Missouri, and he said "with these high gas prices, it just doesn't make sense to buy those mushrooms from California anymore." Hmm. Maybe the Missouri guys should can the Missouri mushrooms, and the California guys should can the California mushrooms, and then we wouldn't have to truck them halfway across the country just to turn around and ship them right back again.
I thought it was pretty funny that a decent grocery store like Gristede's took the time to make a nice sign to explain which tomatoes were from where and why they were safe, and Western Beef tacked up a four-week-old inspection notice from some company nobody's ever heard of.

A Visit From A Friend

2008-06-19T15:39:00.019-04:00

Here are a few photos of some of the places our friend Travelin' Travis got to visit when he came to New York. We had a good time, and we think he did too.

Brighton Beach Gastronomy

2008-06-15T20:37:00.012-04:00

Brighton Beach is our favorite beach for beach-going in NYC. Orchard Beach is my favorite beach for bike-riding, Coney Island for amusement park-ery, and Jones Beach for death-defying idiot transit stunts (don't ever, ever, try to ride your bike over the Robert Moses Bridge). Long Beach is a much nicer beach, but I don't think it counts as NYC. Also, they charge you! Doesn't that seem wrong? Even out in the Hamptons, they don't charge you for simply occupying a space on the sand. If you want a great beach, with a bunch of impossibly tanned and pretty young girls, a Wendy's nearby, and a party train, go to Long Beach. If you want an amazing cultural experience, a combination of skin colors and sizes, and great Russian food, go to Brighton Beach. We have to say, that the best thing about Brighton Beach is that everyone is so darn happy. We're pretty certain it has something to do with not being in Russia anymore.

The Food
Our introduction to Brighton Beach eats on this day was a "salty cheese" placynda, (empanada-type pastry) procured at the most exclusive deli in the world. Why is it the most exclusive? We don't know. But the placynda was frickin' awesome, as our surfer pals might say. The cheese was like a mild feta, with a strong dose of fresh dill, encased in a light, steamy, not-the-least-bit-greasy fried dough. I'm throwing in a photo of the ones from M&I, although we don't know if they're as good as the Exclusive ones. Also - as R. Kelly in "Ignition" says - it's probably a good policy to go with the ones that are poppin' fresh out the kitchen. In the Exclusive photo, you can see the lovely ladies selling them fresh from their table in front of the store.

Sarah and I decided to get our Russian on at M & I International food. We went up (past the alluring sausages) to the third floor, where there's a deli with about 25 indoor tables and 15 outdoor tables. I've seen another blog post that described a visitor as being "intimidated" by the uncooperative Russianness of the patrons and staff. In fact, Sarah scurried off for a while, before I could convince her to come up and try some of the goodies. The most surprising thing about the joint was that every single person was drinking this cherry-currant fruit juice. You just don't see that kind of conformity in the good ol' U. S. of A. It was labeled in the case as "fruit punch," so that's what we said when we ordered. The guy behind us snorted and said some guttural Russian word. When we looked at him uncomprehendingly, he translated for us "compote." It was pretty good, although I asked for ice and they didn't have any. Lots of cherries and currants in the bottom of the cup, although I seemed to be the only guy who ate mine. It was great with the very blintz-like rolled-up crepe with raisin cheese spread in the center. The cheese was like a ricotta, or whatever cheese they put in blintzes.
Downstairs at the grocery store, the hottest-selling items besides the sausages seemed to be the vegetable salads. We had already tried some cubed beet salad and the "Russian Salad" of cubed potato, egg, pea, carrot, and whatever else they put in there with mayonnaise. The Russian Salad was great but didn't travel well, so we stuck with more beet salad, plus a very popular carrot slaw, plus some "eggplant caviar" that seemed to be the hottest-selling stuff in the joint. Babushka after babushka seemed to order a gallon jug of the stuff. Or at least a plastic quart container. Even though I can't stand cilantro and this had some, this stuff was very good. Fresh-tasting, not acrid like some eggplant dishes, very light on the palate, we used it for all kinds of things. My dad made a sandwich out of it, although I don't know if that's allowed by the strict Russian usage bylaws. In the photo, that's the beet salad on the left, the carrot salad in the center, a pickled tomato on the right, some mushroom and some sauerkraut filled pastries, the eggplant caviar behind the tomato, sausage in front, and some fresh-baked pita chips on top of the pastries.

Would You Read This Book?

2008-06-15T20:25:00.005-04:00

One of the programs that Sarah had on this Mac, and that we hadn't used for many years, (I haven't used it since 1990 or so) is Print Shop. Remember this? You could make a card or something, print it out on your dot-matrix printer, color it in, and give it to somebody!
Out of curiosity, I opened this version from 2002. It was kind of fun!

Morningside Street Art

2008-06-15T19:52:00.006-04:00

Right outside our apartment, on 110th and Broadway, we happened to come upon this fella doing some sidewalk street art. I chatted with him a little bit, and he seemed pretty normal, but I didn't ask him the big question. "Why?"

Community Food and Juice

2008-06-15T17:51:00.007-04:00

Community Food and Juice is probably the most popular restaurant in the neighborhood. It has gotten a lot of press for opening and has a nice, though somewhat utilitarian decor. This place has got more business than your dog has fleas. When we arrived at ten to nine AM, there was already a line about ten deep, and the moment they opened the doors, the place got swamped. I dunno if this is a function of their recent opening or the early summer let's-get-out-for-breakfast-on-such-a-nice-day enthusiasm springing up among the young and hearty in the neighborhood. The opening wasn't even that recent anymore. Probably young blood and bedevilment.
There seems to be a lot of enthusiasm for breakfast around town these days. Did you read the New York magazine article describing the city's best breakfast in that hipster haven of Williamsburg, Brooklyn? Get a load of this: "chef-owner George Weld has forged a modest kingdom from local-free-roaming-chicken’s eggs and artisanal heirloom grits." I'm sure you've noticed all the local, free-roaming chickens running the streets last time you walked through Brooklyn. And anybody who uses the words "artisanal," "heirloom" and "grits" in the same sentence clearly does not have a good picture of a)how grits are made and b)the grit-consuming demographic in this country.
Unfortunately Community Food and Juice, as you can perhaps deduce from its name, is given to some of the faults of the sainted George Weld. Everything is organic, local, sustainable, blah, blah, blah. It's got "energy-saving kitchen equipment, composting, and tables made of reclaimed wood."
The food is just okay. Both times we've been there, our orders have been screwed up. The B.E.L.T (b.l.t .with egg) was quite good, and the addition of grated carrots to the hash browns is a real treat. Sarah's potato pancakes with smoked salmon were nothing special--too fat and dense. The dill-laden creme fraiche, judiciously applied, ran out at the end of the first pancake. The latkes were billed having a "caviar creme" topping. They came with about a teaspoon of salmon roe with a scant tablespoon of the creme fraiche. And they forgot the salad that was supposed to come with it. All for $17. I don't know about you, but when I hear caviar, I want caviar. Or, if it has to be salmon roe....well, then at least give me the same amount I'd get at the corner sushi joint. The homemade salmon was good, and in great abundance on the latkes. I know it's retro, but some chopped onions would have been a nice accompaniment.
The juice is especially good, although there isn't much variety. They were pretty much limited to orange and grapefruit both visits, although our waitress helpfully pointed out that we could have orange and grapefruit mixed together.

Mad Scientists in Soda Lab Hysteria!

2008-06-06T14:39:00.004-04:00

So this is the result of an experiment we did in science class for a test of the scientific method. The students had to create an experiment in which they tested a hypothesis about five different sodas. They had to drink five different sodas, then rate them all on a scale of 1-10 on five different variables. We calculated the average rating they gave each soda, then plotted it on a graph. They had to measure the variables against each other, one as independent and one as dependent, for instance "I believe that the fruitier a soda is, the more thirst-quenching it will be" is an example of a hypothesis in which fruitiness is the independent variable and thirst-quenching ability is the dependent variable. Then they had to create their own charts that tested their two variables to see if they had a positive or a negative correlation, or any correlation at all. I used some rather strange sodas, and included seltzer as well. The president of one of the major grocery chains here in New York (Gristede's, Key Food, D'Agostino, C-Town, one of those) just released a statement that the number one best-selling product in New York City supermarkets is a one-liter bottle of seltzer. That is what is purchased more often than any other grocery item. Does that seem strange to you? Especially because my students all hated it, hated it only a little bit less than the ginger beer.

Xenophilia And The Ontology of Delight

2008-06-03T11:09:00.014-04:00

There's a culinary dilemma that I've been puzzling over for some time. That time you had that transcendent dish, that transporting plate of carpaccio de boeuf in the little brasserie in Paris, did it really taste that good? Or were you in such an elevated, travel-induced euphoria that you merely convinced yourself that this truly must be the finest thing you've ever tasted? There are lots of things that one eats when traveling through some traditional foreign culture and "discovers," then brings home stories and memories of. Many is the traveler who returns from Peru with a story of ceviche better than anything you've ever had. On the anthropological research website "Stuff White People Like," they offer a quote about this phenomenon at that supposedly white cultural practice, the dinner party. "If you are able to bring a particularly rare dish from this culture, you will be the star of the party. To seal the deal, be sure to explain as much as you possibly can about the dish: history, availability, and the proper way to eat it. Every white person at the party will be taking mental notes."
I was thinking about this today as I finished a Dr. Brown's Cel-Ray celery-flavored soda, supposedly a Jewish/Brooklyn thing along the lines of an egg cream. I think it's about as Jewish as banana cream pie, but at least it's got a picture of the Brooklyn Bridge on the can. It's not bad, but it got me thinking about all the weird stuff I've been drinking lately. And then I thought "but it's not nearly as weird as when Chris brought that gazpacho in a box to a party in Madrid, along with a bottle of vodka to make Bloody Marias." And that was not nearly as weird as the drink that we had as we hung around Pamplona with college kids. I have no idea how those guys spelled it, but I've seen in spelled kalimotxo, pronounced CAL-ee-MOTE-cho. This was super-cheap red wine purchased in "bricks," or little lined cardboard boxes, mixed half-and-half with Coca-Cola and poured over ice. I guess it's a real tradition there in Navarra, Spain.
And I thought "is there any way in the world I would have drunk this stuff if I weren't traveling?" And I didn't just drink it, I loved the stuff! It tasted great. I couldn't get enough.
I haven't got up the nerve to try it here stateside, but I bet if I did, it'd be the world's worst drink.

Morningside?

2008-06-02T20:52:00.010-04:00

Our neighborhood is known as "Morningside Heights." I had wondered what that meant and checked up a little bit. I guess it used to be known as Asylum Hill for the lunatic asylum that stood where Columbia University (formerly Kings College in lower Manhattan) is now. But Morningside Park was built by Frederick Law Olmsted, the same guy who did Central Park, and the enormous cliff that faces east to the park is exposed to the sun in the morning, and is hence on the "morning side." When we first moved to Harlem, the park was notorious for crime and there were cabbies who would refuse to take us past it. My buddy Chris once had to threaten to vomit in the cab if the guy refused to take him home. Worked, too.

Now the park is very nice, although there is some dispute about gentrification. When they kicked out some crackheads, my buddy Justin the social studies teacher was quoted in the newspaper about it and used the phrase "indigenous population." That was pretty funny.

But now there's a lovely little farmer's market there that's open on Saturdays, so Sarah and I go down there. This time we bought some nuts from some intellectual-type farmers who conversed about genius, dedication, and food as a universal human stimulus. Stupid nuts cost six bucks.

Korean Mill

2008-06-02T17:29:00.005-04:00

The Mill Korean Restaurant is a fairly longtime institution on 114 and Broadway. I found a few reviews saying they "a few years ago" converted from a Jewish greasy-spoon diner to a Korean restaurant when a cook there, a Korean guy, bought the place. That was from 1995, so it's been a while now. It's the only Korean place that I've seen on the Upper West Side, so we're glad they made it. We're also glad that they've got outdoor tables on a beautiful early-summer evening. We both ordered the Dolsot Bi Bim Bap, Greg with beef, Sarah with tofu. Although we both stirred it around pretty vigorously to cook the raw vegetables and egg in the hot stone bowl, the waiter came over a couple times to encourage us to stir it up. Greg ordered "rice cakes," thinking he might compare them to the risotto cakes we've made. That's them in the red sauce above Greg's bowl. Does that look like "rice cakes" to you? It's an extruded tube of boiled fish and rice paste, in a spicy pepper-and-vegetable sauce. It was a little like chewing rubber tubing, but the sauce tasted good and added some welcome flavor to my a-little-bland Bi Bim Bap.

The most fun part, aside from eating outdoors and cooking everything at the table in those stone bowls, was a holdover from the Jewish diner days. We've heard that this place makes the best egg cream around town, and so we had to try it. And the egg cream was great. Stirred more heartily than the Key West version, and not nearly as sweet, it was the highlight of the evening for us.

Do you have a sense of humor?

2008-06-01T21:15:00.008-04:00

Here's a test. How far can you go down the list and still genuinely laugh at this person's comedy?
1. Woody Allen
2. Steve Martin
3. John Candy
4. Ben Stiller
5. Adam Sandler
6. Ashton Kutcher
7. That guy from Saturday Night Live. Not that one, the other one.
8. Sinbad
9. Pauly Shore
10. Anything in trousers, honey.
11. Dane Cook

Man that was hard. I kept thinking "4 - Tom Hanks? No, he's really a 3. OK, 4." "What about Leno? 5? 4? 3? He can be pretty funny. But so annoying." I definitely believe that John Candy is at least a 2, but I don't have the heart to make any more changes.
The point is if you can make it to 6 or so, you have got a dynamite sense of humor. If you can make it past 8, you're demented.

The reason I ask is that Sarah and I were debating about the level of humor we should have in the blog here. As you surely noticed (like fudge you did), in the posting on Virginia ham, apropos of nothing there's a hobo joke. And it's not clear what the hobo would do or why. Well anyway, there were several jokes in there about rednecks, hillbillies, being so broke you can't afford Confederate flag memorabilia, and questionable hygiene practices at roadside food stands. And Sarah decided that this sort of thing was tasteless and insulting. Which of course it was.
However, the question arose. What is the internet for, if not to provide a forum for feckless wiseasses to denigrate the honest, hard-working people of America?

The Large Marge

2008-06-01T18:49:00.006-04:00

As you can see from the photo, I am much happier with a Large Marge in my hand than a red soda. The Large Marge is a specialty of Denny's (a long time friend of the family) who has named the drink after his wife, Marge. The Large Marge is most happily consumed at sundown on a porch in the country in summer. The trick is to get the drink ready a minute before critical sunset time---say, twenty minutes before the sun sinks behind the mountain ridges. It's a vodka tonic with about six times the lime juice of a regular vodka tonic. Here's the recipe: grab a tall glass, add lots of ice, squeeze in the lime, add as much vodka as you like, top with plenty of Schweppes tonic water. Run out to the front porch, grab a rocking chair, lean your head back, sip. Or, have Denny make it for you.

The Thirst Mutilator - What You Crave

2008-06-01T10:54:00.006-04:00

I'm a big drinker. Always have been. Whatever you put in a glass in front of me, I'll drink it right down and ask for another one. Typically, I'll have finished my glass of water before the waiter has had a chance to get around the table distributing them to my fellow diners. If we don't get a pitcher of water from the waiter, he's gotta make four or five return visits to fill my water before the appetizers arrive. At school, I drink two one-liter bottles of water every day between first and sixth period.
So when Sarah and I started considering ways to lose weight, I thought - hey, I shouldn't drink so much. Often when I come home, I open the fridge, open a beer, drink it, then open another one. I thought - geez, that adds up after a while. So we bought plastic bottles of water (don't get on my case, we refill them from the tap), and now instead of drinking a beer, I drink a water. Much better for my health. I still drink beer, but I don't drink one after the other.
But since I changed my drinking habits, I've been getting strange drink cravings that water just won't satisfy. Yesterday I bought a fruit punch from one of those slushee-style machines at a pizza joint. I asked for a large cup half-full and bought a bottle of water to mix. Then I've been craving Fresca and checking for it at every store we visit. It's harder to find than you think. Usually we don't drink soda, but in the past few days I've had a Jarritos tamarindo, a Good-O redpop and whatever weird tropical soda I can find.
Sarah refuses to buy soda for me because it's unhealthy. This is a good policy, but there are many times I wish I had that button that Lyndon Johnson had installed in the Oval Office, where every time you pushed it, somebody would bring you a Fresca. But then, of course, he used to conduct his cabinet meetings from the toilet, too. Never trust a president from Texas, that's my policy.
But at home, with Sarah's stern refusal to allow soda, my cravings can get me stirred up with no release. But thankfully, we've found an ideal solution. Sarah makes a big batch of her famous mint tea to keep in the fridge. She juices a dozen lemons or so, then steeps a big bunch of mint with Lipton tea bags in boiling water for a few minutes, then adds some sugar and water. This recipe has been in the family for many generations, and we get to use home-grown mint on the farm in the summertime.
This tea can satisfy the meanest drink-craving, and can be modified with the addition of extra water (this is one of my oddball cravings) or even gin or vodka. Although we've only done that when we were doing a series of drink experiments, it turned out great. We don't drink mixed drinks during the week, but this is a great one for parties.
Some notes to remember when you make this recipe are that you need an efficient method of juicing citrus and that the type of mint you use makes a big difference, so you need to sniff before you buy. I don't think I can describe the smell of the right mint in words, though. Give it a shot, and let us know what you think!

Warning - Graphic Images and Content

2008-06-01T07:57:00.005-04:00

You know, starting Uptown Kitchen, I thought "we're bound to be the only people writing a blog about cooking in Manhattan, right?" Boy were we wrong. Not only were we not the only culinary enthusiasts with internet access, we found out that there are actually more blogs about culinary enthusiasm than there are about sexual enthusiasm. Criminy! Who knew it was such a dog-eat-dog-sauteed-with-a- reduction-of-limoncello world out there?
At chowhound.com, some guy posted a "what are your favorite New York food blogs?" thread, and not only were there innumerable results, I had never heard of most of them, and they were all so professional and insightful it made me want to turn my face to the wall. I got very intimidated by one site, where a girl actually quit her job to move to New York and blog about food. She describes herself as "a very hungry and opinionated girl on a mission to become a key figure in the culinary world. Armed with a killer appetite and a blue ballpoint pen, she's ready to take the city by storm." This was before I read any of the posts. Not only does she misspell several words per post, she seems to gravitate toward the unpleasant. When reading "I basically decided that falafel tasted like body oder," I began to doubt the sense of shame I should feel at posting my own obviously foolish misadventures in the kitchen.
I found her blog while looking up stuff about bagels in NYC, and was trying to find a picture to show the difference between sable and lox. She was writing about some bagelry that she "discovered," then showed a picture of the bagel she was raving about.
Aaaahhhh!!
Take it away!
Hide the children!
That's a hollowed-out(?) pumpernickel bagel, scallion(??) cream cheese, slippery-looking sable, lettuce(???), tomato(???) American cheese(?????!!!!!!?????), onions and more tomato.
Gah. Bluh. Ullggghh.
I'm sorry for subjecting you to that image. If there was any purpose to this post, it's merely to establish that, while my pizza may be ugly, at least we shouldn't be ashamed of the clearly frivolous content here.

Italian Inspiration

2008-05-31T22:24:00.004-04:00

So I just flew in from Barino's Italian Market in the Bronx, and boy are my arms tired. I spent over thirty dollars on fragile ravioli, the wrong sausage, and other items that would be enhanced by several hours bouncing around on a bicycle, and came home as an inspired Italian chef. Naturally, the first thing I wanted to do was to create a great pizza, so I took the dough I had purchased and abused across one huge park, two subways, and several miles of bicycling through New York.

You doubted me? You thought I couldn't handle the simple task of cutting a ball of dough in half, stretching it out (oh, maybe I should have re-shaped it instead of pulling this half-circle), covering it with toppings (oh, maybe I should have done it on something moveable instead of the counter) and then inserting it into the oven (oh, maybe I should have found an appropriate way to transfer it instead of throwing it with my hands)

Oh well.

It may have been an ugly pizza, but at least it was fun.

Memorial Day Picnic

2008-05-31T21:15:00.006-04:00

So Sarah and I had a ham in our freezer for a few months. It was another one like the Easter ham, Smithfield, purchased in Virginia for one third of the price we would pay in New York, and 25% less sodium. That's just about the perfect amount. Often when we buy ham biscuits at the gas stations in Virginia, they're so salty you can barely eat them without a slug of watered-down coffee between each bite. Plus the biscuits, especially once it gets past ten o'clock or so in the morning, get really dry as well.

I should make a confession here. I didn't believe Sarah when she told me about buying ham biscuits at gas stations in the South. We were driving down a one-lane mountain highway on our way out of town at dawn when Sarah suggested we stop for biscuits at a run-down gas station. I told her that gas stations don't sell biscuits, (momentarily forgetting which one of us would know that kind of thing).
Sounded like something a hobo after three days on the rails might do, but not some hotshot New York gourmand.
But not only are the ham biscuits so far superior to what pass for breakfast biscuits in America (I'm talking to you, Hardee's) I have to order at least one sausage, one bacon, and one fried bologna biscuit while I'm down there or I feel like I'm missing out. The ham biscuits are such a part of the down-home experience, they're like a beacon alerting you you're in a different culture. They must be Virginia's equivalent to Mount Rushmore.

Well anyway, that's why we bought the 25% reduced sodium ham. And it hung around for a few months in the freezer, but we thought that Memorial Day was a good occasion to bring it out. We baked the ham in a hot oven and sliced it into pieces, then made the tomato-and-herbs portion of a panzanella salad (top right) and carried the toasted bread portions separately to mix there, and Sarah made dynamite deviled eggs (top center) and brought West Side Market's fantastic Mediterranean feta spread. Then we mixed that rose champagne with our homemade sangria (in the jar on the right) for a fun picnic drink.

Anyway, it turned out to be a fantastic Memorial Day picnic.

Twilight in The Bronx

2008-05-26T12:54:00.012-04:00

I've gotta believe that the most underappreciated borough in NYC is The Bronx. I've never lived there, but my sister has, and I've spent a lot of time there on my bicycle. Oh, yeah, and I once volunteered for a medical experiment at the Veteran's Hospital up there in which I was injected with testosterone every week. I dunno if it made any difference, but the 300 bucks I made allowed me to eat while I was flat broke in Hell's Kitchen.
But the parks are absolutely the best in the city. Pelham Bay Park is so beautiful, on a Saturday there's a constant stream of weddings, First Communions, Quinceneras, and other celebrations lining up to take pictures. I just took another trip to the Bronx and found out the deli's name that I wrote about before (Barino's Market on Ampere and Research Aves). I also found a lot of crazy stuff I had never seen before. There was an enormous campus that looked like an entire college, all fenced off with No Trespassing signs, identified as the New York Institute for Special Education. What's going on in there?
The other major head-shaker is the house on Pelham Parkway with all the plastic statuary. I have to assume that the woman whom I've spoken to a couple times makes them, but I've never gotten up the nerve to ask. Our conversations have consisted of "is it ok to take a picture? and "wow!"

Classiest City in the World

2008-05-26T11:45:00.010-04:00

Just because we live in New York City, it doesn't mean we're snobs. We're snobs because we're superior to you. In these photos, the classiest places in the world are proud to be featured on Uptown Kitchen.
Plaza Hotel,

Tavern On The Green,

Columbus Circle,

the Alliance Francais,

the Metropolitan Museum of Art

New England Clam Chowder

2008-05-26T11:40:00.005-04:00

During our week of a thousand soups, this one just got thrown in there. Nothing unusual about it, just a Cook's Illustrated Family Cooking recipe. I s'pose it helps to have fresh clams, but the canned ones tasted great to us.

Tour of the Farm

2008-05-26T11:04:00.004-04:00

Song by June Carter, narration by Johnny Cash.
This a real wake-up call to those self-satisfied smug modern types who've never been closer to a cow than a hamburger. It's a hard-hitting look at the gritty, rough-hewn life of the soil found on our Virginia ranch.

Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

2008-05-25T11:50:00.005-04:00

Since Sarah and I are spending the day procuring boxes, pulling out old kitchenware, folding up old towels and whatnot, packing them into the boxes and then pondering what to do with the boxes, I present a poem I wrote in honor of moving. Joyce Cohen, the New York Times real estate columnist and cat fancier, commissioned this poem for her column "The Hunt Grunt" in the NYT Homes section. However, not only did she not print it, she never even acknowledged its receipt. Humph. If the fancy-pants New York Times doesn't want it, then I'll just print it myself.

Changing homes is never easy,
Makes a strong man's stomach queasy.
A decade's dust has got him sneezy,
a decade's grime has got him greasy.
His wife's getting a bit uneasy.

Her china's somewhere in a crate -
Except one piece, is it too late
to open up and find its mate?
It won't be long, it's just one plate.
She bought it in another state.

He grabs each box and opens up.
Here's a pitcher, here's a cup.
He can't find a thing in all that stuff,
his filing system's quite corrupt.
He finally shouts "I've had enough!"

He calls and hires three guys with trucks
for close to twenty thousand bucks.
They said three days, but oops, aw shucks,
Three weeks, his stuff is still in flux.
You said it, moving really sucks.

Mexican Pozole

2008-05-19T19:49:00.006-04:00

In the midst of our "week of a thousand soups," Sarah was inspired to try a spicy vegetable stew traditional in Mexico and the Southwest. We didn't have canned hominy, so we tried the dried version, and this pot sat on the stove for well over six hours, as the kernels are supposed to puff up and burst, as the one on the spoon has done. But the soup turned out great, light and peppery, with a notable southwest tang. For those who like it richer, it was enhanced by a small dollop of creme fraiche, too.

Hungarian Goulash

2008-05-19T18:55:00.006-04:00

According to French Women Don't Get Fat, one should consume one's largest meal at lunchtime. That may work in France, where the day seems to end at 2 pm for a great many people. Plus, I'm not convinced that the French actually do much work, anyway. For us, it is difficult to make time for a sophisticated lunch--as it would take away from our productivity. In the spirit of the book, however, Greg and I are attempting to eat a large lunch and think high-minded French-style thoughts. I don't know how Greg's lunch went, but I had to eat my Hungarian goulash whilst a child was drilling the following scintillating comments in my ear, "Can I have some, can I have some, can I have some?" I think, perhaps, that is not the scenario that Mireille Guiliano envisioned. Perhaps the children of France are more well-mannered.
The goulash was really excellent, the large number of onions melt into a sweet and creamy gravy, lending the whole dish a velvety unctuousness.

Yikes! What is that? Oh yeah, it's an EXTREME GOULASH CLOSE-UP!

Ex Cathedra

2008-05-14T12:32:00.003-04:00

Since cooking is such an imprecise science, there are often calls to authority when a question arises. But a great deal of your cooking personality depends upon to which authority you turn. Sarah and I generally agree that one's first course of action should be to immediately consult the ipsissima verbi of our prophet, our haruspex, our shaman, Mark Bittman.

After that it gets a little cloudy. Yes, we both believe fervently in Jacques Pepin. Yes, Cook's Illustrated is always right (but so preachy!). Yes, Sarah Moulton should still be not just on Food Network but also at Gourmet magazine instead of that phony Ruth Reichl. Also- Rachael Ray, Paula Deen, Giada DeLaurentis, Michael Chiarello and Sandra Lee should be run out of town on a rail, tarred and feathered, and then subjected to the same public humiliation that I loved in the article "The Staggering Dicketry of Bobby Flay." Check it out.
http://www.flakmag.com/tv/flay.html

But other hearts, in other lands are beating, as they say. What else should we be reading and cooking? The closest thing to a Magisterium we have in food writing is the James Beard Society. So should we treat their word as gospel? At their 20th anniversary, they released an infallible statement on the subject of which cookbooks are authoritative:

(Ones we've examined are highlighted in pink)

American Cookery (1996), James Beard
Authentic Mexican (2007), Rick Bayless
Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook (Better Homes and Gardens, 2004)
Classic Indian Cooking (1980), Julie Sahni
Complete Techniques (Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, 2001), Jacques Pépin
Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking (Macmillan, 1995), Marcella Hazan
How to Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food (2006), Mark Bittman
The Joy of Cooking (2006), Irma S. Rombauer
The King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion( 2003)
Maida Heatter’s Book of Great Desserts ( 1999), Maida Heatter
Hors d'Oeuvres Handbook (1999), Martha Stewart
Mastering the Art of French Cooking(2001), Julia Child
The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking (1996) Barbara Tropp
The New Food Lover’s Companion (2007), Sharon Tyler Herbst
The Oxford Companion to Wine (Oxford University Press, 2007), Jancis Robinson
Rick Stein’s Complete Seafood (Ten Speed Press, 2004), Rick Stein
The Silver Palate Cookbook (2007), Sheila Lukins and Julie Rosso
The Thrill of the Grill(2002), Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby
Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone ( 2007), Deborah Madison
The Way to Cook (1993), Julia Child

Are they missing any biggies? Including some minor-leaguers? What do you think?

Hey, So, Like, How 'Bout Some Cheese?

2008-05-11T19:29:00.001-04:00

When the weather is nice, my favorite thing to do is hop on my bike and ride up through the Bronx to Pelham Parkway. This stretch of road is beautiful, and it leads to the largest park in New York City. I once earned the inestimable respect of my pub-trivia peers by naming it, as well as the second-largest, also in the Bronx. Go ahead, take a guess.
Okay, I kind of gave it away with the Pelham Parkway thing, but you would have got it anyway, right? Pelham Bay Park is not only incredible in itself, it also boasts Orchard Beach, City Island (home of the largest active fishing community in NYC), two great golf courses, batting cages, driving ranges, two wildlife sanctuaries, horse rental for riding, an old mansion with gardens maintained by volunteer gardeners, as well as "the famed Treaty Oak" where some white dude swindled some Indians out of most of New York in 1654.
Of course none of these reasons is the reason I go there. I go there for a delicatessen in the Country Club neighborhood. This is a neighborhood entirely separated from the rest of NYC by the Bruckner Expressway, the park, and the ocean. It's old, working-class Italians who couldn't afford to live in the famous Italian parts of New York. Nearly every house has got lawn ornaments and flags of the USA and Italy. Plus a few Ireland. It's hard to keep the Micks out of anywhere, especially in New York.
This place has got hands-down the best delicatessen in New York. Naturally, as I've said before, that carries with it the collateral distinction of being the best delicatessen in the world.
We devoured all of the mozzarella immediately, but here's a shot of the fresh linguine, the fresh sausage and marinara served with a healthy (or not) grating of Parmesan cheese.
Of course, now that I'm writing about it I can't remember the name. But it's on Ampere Avenue. Not Arthur Avenue, although that's fine in its own way.
Last time I rode up there, I nearly couldn't ride back. I had a bag strapped onto the back of my bike with sesame bread, three pounds of fresh linguine, a three-pound ring of sausage so spicy you've gotta take a break, and a liter of marinara sauce like you've never had in your life. But strapped to the handlebars was my gem, my Aladdin's treasure, my undiscovered country, my mozzarella.

I know you've tried "fresh" mozzarella instead of that stringy stuff they have down at the Pizza Pit, and you like it. I know you've even looked at that buffalo mozzarella in whey and thought "twelve bucks? No way!" but then thought again "you know, even so, I'm gonna have to try that." You may even have found out about the new stand they just put up at Fairway under the bridge at 135th street where you can watch the lady hand-form the mozzarella right in front of you. And naturally, if you're a long-time foodie, you've thought about making the trip to Joe's Dairy or Murray's Cheese Shop in Greenwich Village.
These are excellent pursuits, and I endorse them heartily.
But I'm tellin' ya, this cheese was a revelation to me. Sarah and I actually broke into the Fairway before it opened so we could get our hands on the freshest mozzarella the lady makes at the stand. We stood around in the closed store, dodging employees until she could form the balls from the curd, we were that enthusiastic. We got lots of dirty looks from employees, and the manager stood in our way when we tried to check out. Nonetheless, it reaffirmed for us the conviction that fresh mozzarella is worth the possibility of jail time. That mozzarella was certainly worth the danger, fresh, still wet from the salty whey on the outside, soft but substantial strings like muscle on the inside, a bite that can result in a squeak on the teeth just like fresh Wisconsin cheese curds.
That hypothetical jail time would have been a hard burden to bear, but we would have suffered it for that fresh Fairway cheese. But we would have leaped, bounded ecstatically to the jail for the mozzarella from the Country Club deli we had just had the day before. Yes, the Fairway stuff was great, but it didn't have that rich, milky ooze of flavor all the way through. It didn't make us lick our fingers and try to get more. It didn't make us call our friends and say "what are you doing right now? Can you come over? You've gotta try this cheese!" We just stood there in the kitchen, plastic wrap drunkenly splayed out and ripped apart, wielding an inappropriate knife, cutting off piece after piece until the whole thing was gone.
I admit, the experience of undergoing long physical duress in pursuit of something always makes it sweeter. Riding my bicycle across the Araya Salt Flats in Venezuela, running out of water after 10 kilometers and having to pedal the next 100 with none because I was counting on a support driver who elected instead to remain in town and try to impress girls with the pickup truck he was driving, our pickup truck, certainly made the ice cream at the end taste great. Actually, I didn't have any ice cream, all I had was water and frickin' arepas which I had been eating every day and night all week. Corn meal, water, pinch of salt, pinch of sugar, fry in oil. Delicious, right? Hah. You can survive on it though. It tasted pretty good after that bike ride, though. I don't know why I'm saying that. It's a lie. I was barely even conscious. My companion had to drag me into some poor person's home and ask them to take care of me. And the arepas sucked.
My point with that little digression is that I know that sometimes when you work yourself up for something, especially if you exhaust yourself physically trying to achieve it, you tell yourself that it's better than it is.
I know this, I recognize it, and I'm still telling you this cheese is like nothin' else in this world.
Maybe next time I'll figure out what the name of the place is.

Diet? I dunno...

2008-05-11T19:09:00.004-04:00

“Beautiful Soup, so rich and green, Waiting in a hot tureen! Who for such dainties would not stoop? Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!" - Mock Turtle, Alice in Wonderland
So Sarah and I are both thinking about losing weight, even if we're not doing much about it at this point. Actually, last week I skipped supper for a few nights and I lost eight pounds. I think that was more a fluke of time-of-weighing and such than real weight loss, but anyway, it used to say 216 and now it says 208, so it can't be all bad.

But part of our plan for diet coming up is to eat more soup.

Sarah is reading a book called "French Women Don't Get Fat" which sez, and I quote:

"The French, who eat soup up to five times a week, eat better and less than Americans. The evening soup eater tends to consume less fat and less food overall, feeling satiated through the night."

By the way, I bought this innovative, miraculous, Swiss-designed vegetable peeler at a street fair from its inventor or something, and this was the first dish we tried it with. It totally sucked. We threw it away and stuck with our OXO.

Sarah's Recipe:
This is a Bittman recipe

Olive oil--1 or 2 tbls

2 leeks

3 medium potatoes (we used five because they were small and going down hill fast)

4 cups chicken stock (water or vegetable broth would also be fine).
1/2 cup cream, milk, 1/2 and 1/2

Salt and pepper to taste.

Cut and peel the potatoes into small cubes. Wash the leeks very well. The best way to do this is to cut them off at the pale green part and then split them lengthwise. Hold them under running water and separate the layers to wash the sand out. Chop.
Saute the leeks and potatoes in olive oil for five minutes, then cover with broth and cook until vegetables are very tender, about twenty minutes.

After that, you can put a little bit at a time into the blender. Don't freak out if it gets really starchy. It'll thin out when it gets added back to the broth. You can also use a stick blender, but I like the real blender better.
Finally, add 1/2 cup cream, or milk, or 1/2 and 1/2 if you feel like it. If not, it'll be fine just the way it is. Don't let your soup come up to a boil after you've added the milk.

Bagel Me

2008-05-11T11:21:00.000-04:00

Sarah and I didn't cry too much when the famous Columbia Bagel shut down just one half-block from our house. Sure, they got a lot of press for having great bagels. Columbia students swore by them, the place was narrow, dingy, crowded, unkempt, low-key. Everything was homemade, the crusty old counterpersons would snap at you if you took too long, all the things that make a place great.

Why not make a fuss when they demolish a long-time neighborhood institution to build condos for rich people who'll turn our likeable neighborhood into another Upper East Side, or worse, a faux-hip boutique-ridden SoHo?
Absolute, that's why.

Absolute Bagel on 107th and B'way is a far, far better bagelry than Columbia ever was, with less press attention because it's just far enough away from Columbia to avoid the gaze of the prep-schoolies who think they're in Harlem when they see a black person on 118th and Amsterdam. This Filipino family has been here for years, making sure you don't order anything stupid like asiago cheese or banana walnut (not that they would ever serve such a perversion of nature). The dough is either standard, egg, pumpernickel, or, unfortunately, whole wheat (they have to cater to the granola-types up here) and the only one that gets any decoration is the standard. Poppy, sesame, onion, salt, garlic and that's it. They do have several varieties of cream cheeses with flavors mixed in - which are very good and done with great ingredients in-house - but we usually go with a small tub of standard cream cheese and a quarter pound of paper-thin sliced lox. Sarah often likes to stop at Garden of Eden for sable, which is a smoked-yet-still-very-greasy whitefish. And the bagels themselves. Unfortunately they've spoiled me for pretty much anything else. Oh, sure, I'll still eat a fresh bagel from H & H, Ess-A-Bagel, or whatever. But in terms of grocery-store or street-cart bagels, forget it. And it makes the freezer-case bagels I used to eat as a boy in rural Wisconsin look like a cruel prank inflicted on innocent Americans by that sinister Jewish cabal we all heard about.

Experimental Experiment

2008-05-11T10:07:00.000-04:00

So Sarah and I were sitting around on a weekend morning, right about the same time it is now (9:01 AM, Sunday) and thought "wouldn't it be nice to have a juicer?"
Now, I know that this is the type of $100 investment that typically pays off about three dollar's worth. You use it six times, at a rate of two glasses of juice per time, at a rate of about 55% better juice than you get out of a carton, at a rate of two oranges per glass, at 50 cents per orange. As I figure it,

But anyway, after several infomercials had turned my brain to mush, we decided to buy one. Hah! You believed me, didn't you? You think we're such suckers? No way! We got the chance to borrow one from Uncle Bill and Aunt Yao.
I bought four grapefruits for $2.oo and 2 pineapples for $5.00.

We found that one grapefruit made one glass of delicious, frothy juice. I liked the foaminess, Sarah didn't like it as much. According to the instructions, you can juice most any fruit with the skin still on it, except citrus. The rind has a lot of bitterness, sez LaLanne, but the pith can stay on because it's got lots of nutrients. Isn't that the opposite of what us lemon-zesters are accustomed to? Well anyway, it works like a charm to cut the skin on but leave lots of the pith on there. No bitterness at all.

The pineapple has a tough skin, but hey, LaLanne sez it can stay on there. So the first glass of juice (about 1/4 pineapple) took lots of muscular squooshing and squeezing with the plunger to get it through the juicer. And the juice came out sort of green. And it tasted pretty good, but a little bitter. So I decided to cut the rind off, even though it's more work and makes you that much less likely to feel like doing it on a lazy Sunday morning. So with the rind off, it made the same amount of juice but with less pushing, and no green color, and no hint of bitterness. Very good tasting, again a little foamy, but I think that's part of the appeal.

Corned Beef and... What?

2008-05-10T13:11:00.000-04:00

I know, I know.

Everybody who makes corned beef at all makes it with cabbage.

But Sarah and I have been instructed by her 99 year old great aunt that the two of us had better start eating as much kale as possible, pronto. We took her at her word, and believe kale is the secret to long life, happiness, and a cranky unwillingness to throw anything out. I swear. There was half a raw potato in her fridge so old the whole thing was black. I tried to throw it out, she threw a fit. "There's nothing wrong with that! I'll eat that right now!" We can't deny that kale is a healthful and delicious way to enhance your life.

So Sarah cooked the corned beef itself for several hours, and then cooked it with kale and potatoes to make a great bring-to-work soup.

Culinary Wasteland?

2008-05-10T11:51:00.000-04:00

This is an epithet for our neighborhood that has repeatedly been bruited about by downtown hipsters and snobby Upper-East-Siders. We vehemently disagree with this generalization, and believe, in fact, that we are in a culinary impact zone unrivalled anywhere in the world, except for the old Les Halles in Paris.
The greenmarket in Union Square is repeatedly discussed in the press as if it were the only place in New York to find fresh produce. What a crock. Not only has the 114th-116th street greenmarket been around longer, we've got better fish, better turkey, equal access to local fruits and vegetables, and a lot fewer hucksters trying to get you to sign petitions for "Bush out of Iraq" or whatever. I'm sure that petition is going to do the trick, guys. And, as we learned around the old Bronx Terminal Market, we are aware that the freshest and cheapest fruit always goes straight to the fruit-cart guys on the street, since the store warehouses and trucks can't handle delicate already-ripe fruit.
The institutions featured on this map are just as good or better than any other institutions in the city. Dean and Deluca, Bridgemarket Food Emporium, these "classier" grocery stores have absolutely nothing to offer that we're missing, except for $100,000-a-pop full-page ads in the NY Times, a crystal ceiling under the Queensborough bridge and ludicrously inflated prices. My buddy Chris termed it the "Food Deplorium" for its deplorable prices.

Some other notable institutions I forgot to add into the map are Oren's Daily Roast on 113th and Broadway, repeatedly voted by NY Mag and others as the best coffee in New York, and Absolute Bagel on 107th and Broadway, repeatedly voted best bagel in New York. Naturally, this second carries with it, as Calvin Trillin would say, the collateral distinction of being the best bagel in the world. And Martin Brother's wines on B'way and 106 is the most helpful, knowledgeable, well-stocked and well-priced wine shop we've found. Oh, and I forgot to add Citarella, on both 83rd and 125th Streets, which ages beef better than anybody, but charges prices that almost rival the downtown joints.

Unbelievable!

2008-05-07T10:51:00.000-04:00

I realize that I really shouldn't be writing about things that we did not cook ourselves, but I think this is worthy. Koronet pizza, one half-block from our apartment, serves the largest slice of pizza in New York City.

Apparently there's some place called Angelo's in Hampden, Maryland that serves a larger slice, so I can't claim it's the biggest slice in the world. However, it's absolutely astounding, and this slice contains about 3/4 pound of olives and 20 slices of pepperoni. At least I reheated it in our own oven. So it did, technically, come out of the Uptown Kitchen.

Here's a shot of our friend Travelin' Travis with a full pie.

Leftovers? Blecchh.

2008-05-06T22:36:00.000-04:00

One of the issues that Sarah and I have with an abundance of wonderful gourmet grocery stores, beautiful and creative cookbooks, and culinary gamesmanship is that it leads to a refrigerator and freezer full of half-used raw and cooked ingredients meant to be part of some larger dish. Chicken is especially a problem in this regard, since if it's not fried, served cold and dry the next day just isn't good for anybody. We often boil whole chickens for matzo-ball or chicken-noodle soup, or roast whole chickens for one night's dinner. Then that pallid, gouged-up white carcass stares at you for the next four days on a refrigerator shelf until someone breaks down and either eats it or throws it out the window. Here on the fourteenth floor you can get a pretty good thrill from a four-pound bird, if your timing is right.
Sarah and I found a way to avoid costly and pedestrian-unfriendly disasters like this by cubing the leftover chicken and putting it in the freezer. Not an earth-shattering practice, I know, but we found some good ways to deal with it. This was another Cook's Illustrated recipe, and I thought the unique parts of this curry were the frozen peas (easy!) frozen chicken (easy!) that you could throw into the curry sauce, and then finish with peanuts to add flavor and crunch.

INGREDIENTS
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 small clove garlic , minced
2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger
2 teaspoons red curry paste (more if youlike it spicy!)
1 cup coconut milk
1 1/2 tablespoons lime juice from 1 lime
2 teaspoons fish sauce
1 can whole tomatoes, sliced
Table salt and ground black pepper
lime wedges for serving
whatever is in your freezer and you'd like to get rid of
(Cook's Illustrated reccommends using brown sugar and cilantro in the sauce, but we didn't like them)

1. Heat oil in medium saucepan over medium heat until shimmering but not smoking; off heat, add garlic, ginger, curry paste and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add coconut milk, lime juice, fish sauce, sliced canned tomatoes; increase heat to high and bring to boil; boil until sauce is reduced to about 1 cup, about 3 minutes. (second picture) Off heat, stir in chicken, frozen peas, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Cover to keep warm and set aside; stir once after about 1 minute.

2. To serve, stir sauce to recombine and spoon 1/2 cup over rice. Serve immediately with lime wedges, passing remaining sauce separately.

Cook's Illustrated Risotto

2008-05-06T22:16:00.001-04:00

America's Test Kitchen is the television show associated with the Cook's Illustrated magazine and series of cookbooks. We like to watch this show, especially when they feature a well-beloved recipe like the twenty-four hour cake. The problem with this show and with the magazine and cookbooks is that they try each recipe at least dozens, if not hundreds, of different ways. Then they adjust the recipe to suit their personal taste, and include all the little adjustments they've made in order to please their palate.
This makes the recipes inordinately long, and overstuffed with little distractions like "since we preferred the nuttiness of Ecuadorian chocolate, we ordered raw cacao beans from Julio Amoeba in Teguchigotchigulpa, and ground them with our pumice-stone mortar and pestle..."
Thus the cook with a fridge full of getting-old vegetables and thinking "I wonder if I can put leeks in this paella" is instead instructed to "chop downward with a twisting motion to remove the hairs from your 7.5-ounce rutabaga heads."
All that being said, we still enjoy it when they send us a recipe for testing and seeking our comments. The idea for a risotto with fresh, crisp green vegetables that still maintained a creamy, cooked risotto texture was a winner with us, even if it did take over three hours and several trips to the grocery store. That's why God invented grocery stores, right?
And besides, this recipe turned out great, and the vegetables were crisp and bright green, and the risotto was creamy and delicious.

INGREDIENTS
1 pound asparagus , tough ends snapped off and reserved, spears cut on bias into 1/2-inch thick pieces
2 medium leeks , white and light green parts halved lengthwise, washed, and sliced thin (about 4 cups), 2 cups roughly chopped greens reserved
4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
3 cups water
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
Table salt and ground black pepper
1/2 cup frozen peas
2 medium garlic cloves , minced
1 1/2 cups Arborio rice
1 cup dry white wine
1 1/2 ounces grated Parmesan cheese (about 3/4 cup), plus extra for serving
2 teaspoons juice from 1 lemon

1. Chop tough asparagus ends and leek greens into rough 1/2-inch pieces. Bring chopped vegetables, reserved parsley and mint stems, broth, and water to boil in large saucepan over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low, partially cover, and simmer 20 minutes. Strain, cover and set over low heat to keep broth warm.
2 . Heat 1 tablespoon butter in large Dutch oven over medium heat. When foaming subsides, add asparagus spears, pinch of salt, and pepper to taste. Cook, stirring occasionally, until asparagus is crisp-tender, 4 to 6 minutes. Add peas and continue to cook 1 minute. Transfer vegetables to plate and set aside.
3. Melt 3 tablespoons butter in now-empty Dutch oven over medium heat. When foaming subsides, add leeks, garlic, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until leeks are softened, 4 to 5 minutes. Add rice and cook, stirring frequently, until grains are translucent around edges, about 3 minutes. Add wine and cook, stirring frequently, until fully absorbed, 2 to 3 minutes.
4. When wine is fully absorbed, add 3 cups hot broth to rice. Simmer, stirring every 3 to 4 minutes, until liquid is absorbed and bottom of pan is almost dry, about 12 minutes.
5. Stir in about 1/2 cup hot broth and cook, stirring constantly, until absorbed, about 3 minutes; repeat with additional broth 3 or 4 times until rice is al dente. Off heat, stir in remaining tablespoon butter, Parmesan, and lemon juice; gently fold in asparagus and peas. If desired, add up to 1/4 cup additional hot broth to loosen texture of risotto. Serve immediately.

Easter Dinner

2008-05-04T22:15:00.001-04:00

Asparagus Custards

These were the first course at our Easter dinner 2008, and they were a big hit. The custard is a standard savory egg custard, but with a puree of fresh-cooked asparagus added. After baking in a medium oven in a water bath, the custards are de-potted, and the still-pristine tips of the abused asparagus are served on top! We kept the custards in the refrigerator for a day, and just steamed the tips at the last minute.

The main course of the dinner was a Smithfield Ham we brought up from Virginia. We paid $17 for it at a dumpy grocery store in Staunton, VA, and would have paid $65 (or more!) for it in NYC. We got the 25% less sodium version, because they tend to be very salty. This particular one was a big hit, after we roasted it in a hot oven for several hours, it stayed quite juicy, and didn't have that SPAM taste of some of those injected "ham and water food products." Below the pickled beets in the top left is a horseradish whipped cream that was fantastic with the ham.

At right is a shot of Greg "ricing" the potatoes instead of mashing them. Worked out fairly well, I'd say.

The signature drink of the day was a version of the "sea breeze" made with gin instead of vodka. Grapefruit juice, gin, cranberry juice, and frozen citrus (grapefruit, tangerine, orange, blood orange) cut up into pieces, as well as ice.

Risotto Cakes

2008-05-04T22:01:00.000-04:00

This is probably the third or so time that Sarah has tried this recipe. It starts with a standard vegetable risotto, I don't think there are any special tricks to that recipe. I don't even know if the risotto recipe is included in the risotto cake recipe.

But this one is from Cook's Illustrated, and the main idea is to roll the risotto into balls, coat them with panko crumbs, and fry in about an inch of vegetable oil. The risotto should be cool, to form into balls and not fall apart. But the secret is in putting just a small square of fresh mozzarella cheese in the center of each ball, and it adds a great deal of enjoyment to the cutting-open experience.

Ingredients
However much risotto you have left over
fresh mozzarella
panko crumbs
vegetable oil

Step 1: cut up mozzarella into .67-inch cubes
Step 2: fill a pie plate or something with the panko crumbs
Step 3: Put a small frying pan on the stove and heat 1 inch of oil until it's hot.
(the oil is hot enough when it raises a 7/8" blister on exposed skin)
Step 4: Pick up a cube of mozzarella and wrap it in a wad of old risotto
Step 5: Roll the ball in the panko and drop it in the oil
Step 6: Repeat as needed

Seder Table

2008-05-02T20:03:00.001-04:00

Isn't our Seder Table lovely?
The artwork we brought down from our apartment in New York because we want to keep it safe from our messy construction project this summer. But we thought it added a great deal to our Seder decoration. We loved the Jewish-themed tableware, and the gold silverware looked lovely next to it, too.
Let me see if I can remember the meal, course by course. Naturally, after Easter dinner 2007 was served at 10:30 PM, there was a fair amount of good-natured ribbing about the time we would be served. Luckily, we sat down to dinner before 9:00. We began with a reading of the Haggadah by Gabe, leading us in the traditional prayers (in English, we didn't attempt the Hebrew) and dipped the parsley in the salt water, and things like that. The first course was a lovely lettuce salad, and then the matzo ball soup pictured below. The matzo ball soup was a big hit, with us as well as with Travelin' Travis. Louise feels that a Seder is incomplete with only one type of kugel, so naturally she made two. A savory noodle kugel upheld the Ashkenazi tradition, while a sweet raisin-rice kugel represented the Sephardic cuisine. Sarah made beautiful Cornish Game Hens stuffed with a savory rice stuffing. Each one of us was served an enormous hen, which was a little overwhelming. They proved to be as moist and delicious as they were attractive. We were all having so much fun that we kept the party rolling until past 12:30 AM, breaking even the Easter dinner record.

Berks County, PA

2008-05-02T19:37:00.001-04:00

Calvin Trillin, visiting Berks County, was thrilled to receive a gift basket containing bologna, pretzels, Yuengling beer, and potato chips. We were also thrilled to find most of these items.
Dieffenbach potato chips were described by Trillin as "the best potato chips in Berks County, which carries with it the collateral distinction of being the best potato chips in the world."

Bologna is what we might call Summer Sausage

MMmmm... Pig heads! And such good prices!

Our friend Flat Travis was also pleased to sample several other specialties of the county. Notice that he found pheasant hearts, beef hearts, goose hearts, pork tongues, lamb tongues, goose gizzards, pork kidneys, and other delights!

Cincinnati Seven-Way Chili

2008-05-02T19:14:00.000-04:00

This is another favorite, although we've never solidified a recipe for the chili itself. Once again, this is one we brought to a church potluck, and two enormous pots were gone before we got through the line. Probably the only difference between standard chili is that we use equal amounts of ground beef and seared cubes of stew beef. And then when we serve it at home, we accompany it with seven accoutrements, which tend to vary. We do almost always use sliced or diced radishes and cucumbers, cheese, sour cream, Fritos or Chee-tos, and scallions. This particular time we used rice instead of spaghetti, and served it with Southern corn bread.

NYT Plum Torte

2008-05-02T19:09:00.001-04:00

This recipe is a tried-and-true classic for us. I guess it was published in the NY Times first in the 1970's. We've made it several times, and brought two of them to a church potluck last year. Unfortunately for us, both of them were devoured before we could even make it through the line.

Tomato Soup

2008-05-02T18:51:00.000-04:00

I love the tomato soup from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything. Just take a large onion sliced, one carrot chopped--or several baby carrots chopped, two tablespoons olive oil or butter, 1 tsp salt, 2 large cans whole tomatoes (supposed to be seeded and chopped, but I just left them whole today because I didn't feel like doing all that work), and one cup chicken broth. Saute onions and carrots for 5 minutes or until soft. Add tomatoes and cook for 10 minutes, add 1 cup broth. Puree in a blender --- you can only do a little soup at a time. Then, it's ready to serve. The whole thing takes about 30 minutes start to finish. I like to accompany it with an old fashioned grilled cheese sandwich or with croutons or toast.

Cook's Illustrated Recipes

2008-05-02T18:22:00.000-04:00

Smooth-to-the-Groove Sandwich Bread

Jewish Egg Challah, Fried Risotto Cakes with Brussels Sprouts and Bacon

One of our favorite sources for long, detail-rich, super-picky, extensively tested recipes is the Cook's Illustrated magazine, their television show, and the books of recipe compilations.

This cake was the most Cook's Illustrated-y ever. It took Sarah and Louise an entire day to make, leading to our snide nickname for it, the Twenty-Four Hour Cake.

Hot Pot

2008-05-02T18:08:00.000-04:00

When Sarah, Christina and I went to visit Uncle Bill and Aunt Yao for the Chinese New Year, we reaffirmed our affection for this great Chinese tradition. We'd really like to do it ourselves, but for now it's much easier for Aunt Yao to guide us through the steps and ingredients.
Notice that, going counter-clockwise from the lower left, there are Chinese cabbage, paper-thin-sliced beef and pork, cilantro, mushrooms and another type of cabbage, two super-long kinds of Chinese mushrooms, two types of fish balls, pig stomach, and a plate of tofu that includes tofu noodles, fried tofu, and tofu chunks.

Egg Cream at Key West Diner

2008-05-02T17:58:00.000-04:00

When Joanie, John and the kids came to visit us in New York, one of their favorite treats was a chocolate egg cream. We tried this one at the diner, then made them at home.
This Jewish/NYC tradition contains neither eggs nor cream, but at least it has chocolate!
A quick squirt of chocolate syrup, then about 3/4 cup of milk, then a cup or so of seltzer. Then beat it like mad with a spoon to whip up foam, then fill the rest of the way with seltzer.
Keep on beating with that spoon, and it'll come up real light and creamy.
We tried making it with soy milk, but the foam turned kind of messy.

A Cake for Easter

2008-05-01T21:20:00.000-04:00

Smashing Success with Almond Cake!

This is an almond cake from Jacques Pepin's book Fast Food My Way. I've watched Jacques making these dishes on his TV show, and I'll grant you, he's fast. It might actually be faster for him to cook his food than to go to McDonald's at 12:30 in the afternoon (not that I've ever done that--just speculating). It usually takes me about 14 hours to make something, this cake included. It was really tasty. I don't know why it took so long. I think I was working ahead. Come to think, it was the stupid dinner rolls. The cake was easy and fast, and not much trouble at all.
This is a food processor cake with almond paste and flavoring, and a mascarpone/sour cream topping (In the course of researching this recipe, I learned how to pronounce mascarpone, and you don't say MARS in the beginning, hah, who knew?) To me, mascarpone is a disappointing second to cream cheese and creme fraiche. It's rather dull, just like most Italian desserts. The cake gets a rum and sugar sauce on top to enhance the moisture. Were I to do this recipe again, I'd follow Jacques's instructions and serve it with sour cream. It really cuts the sweetness and adds a nice edge. Go Jacques!

Meeting our neighbors in the garden

2008-05-01T21:02:00.000-04:00

Today was the sixth grade's first day of gardening in the city. It was my first day too! The police department is letting us plant a flower garden in their garden space. We had several compliments from them and from passers-by on the street. It was a great experience.

Here's our garden before we started back in March.

Our little red wagon is a big hit. Everyone wants to be the one to pull it, and I've had several offers to buy when we're done with the project. The kids are working hard on the planting. It didn't take long for them to get into the swing of things--lots of hoes and rakes. They really like the weeding and digging holes.
We had noticed some rat holes in the garden, right next to the building foundation, but I was convinced that the rats were gone, or at least wouldn't have the nerve to surface with 9 boys around. On the contrary (one should never underestimate a New York City rat), a rat came climbing out of its hole. We all screamed, and someone went after him with a broom. Mr. Rat headed straight for a bag of trash. Then, the second one came scrambling out of the hole. By this time we were all horrified. Soon the police officers and fire departement came out to see what we were all screaming about (again, with 9 boys it could be anything). It was the most talked-about episode of the day. Before the rats, we had been learning about roly-polys and earthworms. Oh, for those more innocent times.

Planting Starts on the Farm

2008-05-01T20:37:00.000-04:00

Our first foray into summer gardening started this week.
We spent a lot of time (okay it was only an hour or so) on top of a tractor, cultivating our field.
Greg got the tractor more or less in the right field, Sarah took it around several turns and got the cultivator down in the ground. Gabe also took a few turns, and we spent a few days out there hoeing, raking, mounding and planting. We planted cucumbers, corn, half-runners, beets and okra. Tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers will be planted in a few weeks. We are particularly excited about our beans. Greg and Sarah hope they produce enough to can this summer for winter eating.
We are pretty worried about Mr. Groundhog who has taken up residence in the field, and the wild turkeys who roam around. Both can wreak havoc on our plans. We hope we can convince Mr. Groundhog to relocate. Well, at least he's not a rat.