5 BEST New York City - Lattes

For a few reasons, I've been traversing Brooklyn & Manhattan over the last three weeks. In that time, there have been many lattes.

2 quick rules:

the cleaner the barista's workspace, the better the coffee.

gentrified Brooklyn serves much better coffee than Manhattan

1. Cafe Grumpy - no surprise here - all three locations are special (uses Ronnybrook Milk)
2. Ninth Street Espresso (Chelsea, not East Village) - The micro-foam in Chelsea is superior, in the EV, it's just average
3. Cafe Pedlar - with no bitterness or acidity at all
4. Sit & Wonder - morning guy takes a lot of pride in pulling a great shot and somehow this latte "keeps" well for 10-20 minutes whether other ones do not
5. Stumptown - in the ACE hotel - delicious (and uses Hudson Valley Milk)

Honorable Mention
- Kaffe 1668 - precise and accurate every time

- Gorilla

Just not very good

- Pret a Manger - all of them

- Bouchon Bakery

- Ost

Numbers 2-5 all use Stumptown coffee

Cannelloni Beans

Simple and fresh - this is a basic side

Fresh Beans

shopping = mildly difficult

difficulty = low

expense = low

2 lbs fresh beans in pod (could be anything - Cannelloni, Garbanzo)

1 heirloom tomato, seeds removed and rough chop

5 T. extra virgin olive oil

1 T. sea salt

1 bay leaf

1 clove garlic smashed

1. remove beans from pod (this took me about 30 minutes)
2. boil in UNSALTED water for 10 minutes and drain
3. in clean (& dry) pot add olive oil, bay, garlic
4. heat to medium high until garlic fragrance is evident
5. add drained beans and tomato
6. reduce heat to low and partially cover
7. cook for 30 minutes

lamb chops - quicky and tasty

Broiled Lamb Chops

(serves 4)

time = little

expense = high

difficulty = low

8 lamb loin chops, grass-fed, room temperature

4 cloves garlic

2 branches of rosemary

4 T. olive oil, best you can afford (not local)

1 T. dijon mustard

1 t. Sea salt

1. Mince the garlic as small as you can. Add rosemary and continue mincing
2. Mix oil and mustard.
3. Add garlic/rosemary paste to oil/mustard
4. Coat all lamb chops with paste
5. Allow to sit for 10-15 minutes
6. Put chops on foil-lined cookie sheet
7. Broil for 3 minutes
8. Turn over each chop
9. Broil for 5 more minutes
10. Allow to sit for 5 minutes.

It's delicious and super fast. Goes great with any side local veg.

Corn Chowdah!

Corn Chowder was decisively bland. Next time, I'll need to add more salt at more frequent points and then use paprika or cumin.

Corn Chowder

shopping: easy

technique: easy

time: time consuming

5 strips bacon

8 ears of corn

6 cups milk

1 bell pepper

2 fresh onions

1 sprig thyme

1 T. butter

shuck corn

take all the kernels off all the corn

throw away 3 cobs

cut other 5 cobs in half

cut bacon into strips

dice - as small as possible - the bell pepper and onion

heat large dutch oven to medium high heat

toss in bacon and sweat for 12 minutes. this is longer than you think. the bacon will be crispy.

pull all the bacon out

add onion, bell, thyme, and butter. stir

cover and reduce heat to medium for 5 minutes

stir thoroughly

meanwhile, heat 6 cups of milk

add corn, cobs and milk

boil for 5 minutes

simmer for 20 more

throw away cobs

puree 1/3 of the soup then add back in

add salt & pepper

serve with bacon garnish

5 BEST New York City - ICED COFFEES

So, coffee isn't local. Or is it. the LOCALVORE uses the 80% by weight rule. And a coffee is nearly 97% water. So as long as the water isn't imported, then coffee is local.

So here's my list of the best iced coffees. No, I have not been to each and every coffee shop in New York City. No, I didn't hermetically seal 20 iced coffees, rush to my lab and taste them blindly.

What did I taste? Well, all drinks are ICED LATTES and the smallest size. Why a latte? Well, it ensures that an espresso is pulled fresh and thus the concerns over how long as the iced coffee been in the fridge, how often is the tupperware container washed, what detergent was used to wash the container - all are moot.

Here we go:

1. Cafe Grumpy - I believe that they are the only place that uses a specific coffee roast for iced beverage drinks. It takes a LONG time, but is worth the wait.
2. Gorilla Coffee @ GORILLA - Somehow, the iced coffee tastes better when at Gorilla.
3. Taralucci Y Vino - TyV uses a very mild coffee and noticeably fresh/clean equipment INSIDE (at 18th street - note the little kiosk is not very good).
4. Blue Sky Bakery - they simply do everything very well.
5. Ciao For Now - A newcomer and the MOST expensive iced latte at 4.50, but the use of Hudson Valley Fresh (also at Blue Sky) gives this coffee a nice mouthfeel. The morning barista does a slightly LONGER pull for the iced coffee.

Notables that were left off: Cafe Regular, Sit & Wonder, Mojo, 9th Street, Joe - the art of coffee (btw, the 23rd street location feels very dirty, no?)

Still to try : Cafe Pedlar, Clover, Simon Sips, Abracao

a dinner gone right!

cocina alla casa - cooking at our house - has been, well, not great for the last month. We've been uninspired to make anything really tasty.

All that ended yesterday as the farmer's market inspired some creativity.

"Fricassee of scallops & black fish"

Serves 2

Prep time = short

Cooking time = short

Ingredient procurement = moderately difficult

1. 1/2 pound of Long Island Sea Scallops
2. 1/2 pound of Long Island Black Fish Fillet
3. 1 pint non-greenhouse cherry tomatoes (heirloom preferably)
4. 1 fresh, local white onion
5. 1 lb. haricot vert, blanched
6. 1/2 pound Israeli Cous Cous (non-Local alert), cooked like pasta
7. salt / pepper
8. Best Olive Oil you can afford

Slice the onions as thin as you can

Quarter the tomatoes

WASH the scallops

Pat Dry the fish and cut into three

---

Heat Non-stick pan to medium high

Add sliced onions and more olive oil than you think

Just before they burn, add 4 oz water and a 1/2 teaspoon of salt

When there's no more water, add all the tomatoes and a 1/2 teaspoon of oil

stir occasionally and let cook 10 minutes

toss fish/scallops with salt and pepper

add fish to pan

2 minutes later add scallops and 2 oz water

stir

add a little salt and olive oil

after 2 minutes, turn off heat and leave pan alone for 4 minutes

To plate:

mound cous cous

surround with haricot verts

add a piece of fish, 2-3 scallops and some onion-tomato sauce onto the mound

ENJOY

letting Strawberries well just be strawberries

the weekend has come and gone. The home front ate a 1/2 gallon of strawberries and a pint of blueberries (Jersey blueberries already, hmm?).

Now, I saw lovely kohlrabi but didn't buy any. I saw it made once with love and taste. Each year I buy some and proceed to make something inedible.

any ideas for this vegetable?