a foray into a local diet

5 Best Foods from Brooklyn - 2011

2012-01-01T16:44:00.005-05:00

All of us are bombarded with "best of 2011" lists this time of year, but to my knowledge nobody provided this list: FIVE BEST BROOKLYN FOOD ITEMS - 2011.

So here it is in alphabetical order.

Ace Jams - Simply fantastic jams made in Prospect Heights. The flavors are memorable of perfect fruit with a little twist. We are very partial to the blueberry shiso. These jams are expensive but still good value - so we enjoy them as a splurge. Ace jams are available only at Brooklyn Larder.
Baked - Hardly a surprise here, the brownies are unparalleled. When we are borrowing a car, inevitably we end up here. Brownies!
Brooklyn Larder - This is a fantastic store for meats, cheeses and very high-end provisions. Our favorite reason to go there is for gelato and sorbet. I make gallons of ice cream each summer and don't think my quality ever parallels Brooklyn Larder. All the flavors are great and well worth the price.
Morris Kitchens - Both the ginger and boiled apple cider syrups are just tremendous. From spooning over vanilla ice cream to making a beverage with seltzer and rum, the products are delicious and impossible to make at home. You'll find their products at Brooklyn Flea and fine food stores around town. Pricing is strange as it seems that the best place to buy is directly from Morris Kitchens at Flea (2 for 20 or 1 for 12).
SCRATCHbread- If you are near Bedford Ave / Quincy, go into SCRATCHbread where Matt Tilden and team make fantastic breads and sweets? His items are interesting, different, and delicious. Our favorite is the foccacia and seems to be in good supply at Brooklyn Larder and Union Market.

Coffee in NYC - definitive guide

2011-12-15T00:01:00.001-05:00

I've received a lot of "hey did you see this?" e-mails since the NY Times published an exhaustive quality list two months back (with interactive map).

While the NYTimes is exhaustive, the author provides no real delineation between best and serviceable. Here's my organized guide, with 38 places still to visit!

A Level - Best of the City

Abraco (east village)
Blue Bottle (williamsburg)
Cafe Grumpy (williamsburg, chelsea, park slope) - note the park slope location is tiny!
Cafe Pedlar (cobble hill)
Kaffe 1668 (tribeca)
Ninth Street Espresso (east village and chelsea)
Stumptown Coffee (penn station)
Bluebird (east village)
Third Rail Coffee (village)
RBC NYC (tribeca - sorta)

B Level - Worth visiting

Everyman Espresso (east village)
Gimme! Coffee (williamsburg, noLiTa)
Gorilla (park slope) - trending downwards after the coup de barista!
Gimme! Coffee (williamsburg, noLiTa)
Joe (west village, chelsea, grand central) - somehow the chelsea shop makes better espresso drinks than the other locations
Oslo (williamsburg)
Ost (east village)
Sit & Wonder (prospect heights)
Maialino (madison park)

C Level - Fine

Birch (noWheresville)
La Colombe (tribeca)
CLOSED - City Girl (soho)
Culture Espresso (penn station)
Fort Defiance (red hook)
Ground Support (soho)
Milk Bar (prospect heights)
Glass Shop (prospect heights)
Think Coffee (nyu-ville)
Iris Cafe (brooklyn heights)

D Level - Serviceable

Cafe Regular (park slope)
Clover Cafe (boerum hill)
Ortine (prospect heights)
Roots Cafe (park slope)
Southside (park slope)
Roots & Vines (lower east side)
Van Leeuwen (trucks)

F Level - Avoid

Cafe Regular Du Nord (park slope)
Saturday Surf (soho)

N/A - Not visited yet

Baba (williamsburg)
Bakeri (williamsburg)
Beaner Bar (greenpoint)
Boneshakers (williamsburg)
Breukelen Coffee House (crown heights)
Brooklyn Label (greenpoint)
Cafe 474 (park slope)
Cafe Mocias (upper west side)
Champion Coffee (greenpoint)
Espresso 77 (queens)
Five Leaves (greenpoint)
Indian Road (inwood)
Jittery Joe's (midtown)
Knave (midtown)
Marlowe & Sons (williamsburg)
McNally Jackson (noLiTa)
Moomah (tribeca)
The National (lower east side)
Second Stop (williamsburg)
the Smile (east village)
Sweet Leaf (queens)
Variety Coffee (williamsburg AND greenpoint)
Village Tart (village)

October Cocktail - Gimlet

2011-11-30T22:00:00.004-05:00

I was more interested in the process of making lime cordial than I was in the actual gin gimlet. Over the last 10 months, I've grown to like gin. I may even say it's my favorite distilled alcohol. Anyhow, after I read Toby Cecchini's T Magazine (recipe at the bottom) article on making lime cordial, I added this drink to A COCKTAIL A MONTH.

I tried Hendricks, Plymouth, and Bluecoat and thought that Bluecoat was easily the best match. I don't know if it's the better gin, but seemed to pair with lime much better.

Once you make the cordial, the drink is easy to make.

Ingredients

2 oz. gin
1 oz. lime cordial
lime wedge

Directions

Add ice to tumbler
Add cordial
Add gin
Stir
Garnish with a lime wedge

Prime Meats (no. 6 of 12)

2011-11-30T12:44:00.008-05:00

We are definitely not getting to all 12 restaurants. But we did visit Prime Meats last week. And overall, it was meh. Though related, Prime Meats is not as tasty as Frankie's. The food is good. The ambiance nice. The service was fine. Nothing wrong with the place, but it's not one of the places we'd decidedly return to.

So what did we have?

We started with oysters from Massachusetts and Rhode Island. They were excellent - fresh, briny, juicy and visually appealing.

SOS followed that with her typical first-time-in-a-restaurant-order of a burger. This $18 burger was fine, almost too fine. The patty was a perfect cylinder that exactly met the bun's edges. The toppings were all sliced uniformly and were seemingly fresh. In the end, the burger had two downfalls. First, she asked for it to be medium rare. After finishing it, there wasn't a drop of "juice" on the plate. It was too medium and not juicy enough. Second, it had no soul. It felt like a picture postcard representation of a burger. Maybe in 2011 Brooklyn, we're too used to some burgers having a strong bacon taste while others have a unique crust and others have a good deal of salt within the meat. This had no character, no soul.

I ordered the choucroute garnie. It's a classic Alsatian dish and the preparation was fantastic. The sauerkraut was equally sour, rich, and cabbage-y. Delicious. And the meats were rich and slightly gamy. We loved it.

We ordered a quartino of the most bland, unappealing wine I can remember. Strangely, it came from the very reputable negociant - Joseph Drouhin. This wine tasted watered-down.

Total, with tax and tip came to $80. Not crazy, not a value. Very meh.

September Cocktail - Margarita

2011-10-25T17:00:00.000-04:00

Margarita. It's something most of us have pretty average experiences with. Think hard. Can you remember the last time you had a great margarita? If so, how much of that "great" connects to the place, the people, or time of year? My point is that a pretty average margarita can taste great on the first warm day of June after a long workday, especially when shared with great company.

I set out to try and make a great margarita even if drank alone, on a rainy night in September.

Three rules I learned through my tests:

You must shake a margarita vigorously. It needs the intense chill and the aeration.
Cointreau is much better than standard triple sec. It's a little extra, but worth it.
A salted rim adds positive complexity.

I tried a few tequilas and preferred Puro Verde. I'm not enough of an expert to describe why, but this produced the margarita I expected. There's no harshness in this tequila.

Ingredients for 1 margarita:

2 ounces tequila (preferably blanco)
1/2 ounce lime juice
1/2 ounce Cointreau
2 dashes citrus bitters (I used Bitter Truth Grapefruit)

Technique:

Use the spent lime rind to moisten the lip of a rocks glass.
Roll the glass through a plate of kosher salt.
Add ice to glass
Combine all ingredients with ice in a cocktail shaker
Shake vigorously (more than you think you need to)
Pour into rocks glass.
Garnish with lime wheel

Char No. 4 (6 of 12)

2011-08-24T17:30:00.003-04:00

Last Friday, SOS and I enjoyed a fine meal at Char No. 4. By and large, our impression of the restaurant was of a place with consistent and enjoyable food, yet not anything we couldn’t match at home (save the two steaks on the menu). The real draw is the whiskey list and the ability to taste so many. Char No. 4 will pour you 1 ounce of any whiskey they have.

I created a rye whiskey tasting by selecting three ryes that I hadn’t tasted before. And like most things, when you line up three of the “same” items in front of you, you’ll find differences and favorites (more on this later). To go with the whiskey, they made an excellent cocktail – the Noreaster – which is a Dark & Stormy with bourbon in lieu of Gosling’s rum - Mighty tasty.

We ordered 2 snacks, 2 appetizers, and 1 sandwich and felt stuffed. The two dishes most memorable were the snacks. The crispy cheddar curds were hot, crisp, buttery, and aromatic. The spicy peanuts and pickles were perfect as well. To me, both compliment the whiskey drinks really well. Where they bourbon or rye is sweet and served chilled, these were salty and warm.

The bacon arrived on a bed of micro-greens and corn kernels that were nice. And the chicken liver mousse was not interesting, but fine.

Lastly, we had the chopped pork sandwich. Again, it was fine, but the best component came in a tiny ramekin. It was pickled chili peppers in vinegar. They combined with the pork’s richness and fattiness perfectly. It was a delicious combination, yet I can’t say it stood out relative to sandwiches at Wildwood or Blue Smoke.

SOS ordered a rose that was flavorless. It was the only disappointing part of our experience.

Char No. 4 does all the basics well. We won't make a trip back anytime soon. But, if we were on Smith Street with time to kill and a hankering for cheese curds and/or whiskey – we’d be there.

The three whiskies:

Jefferson Rye (winner) - slightly tart and sweet with an enjoyable hot finish
Wild Turkey Russell's Rye - mostly heat, some oak (not too much), notably spicy
Wild Turkey 101 - all heat, a little molasses, but hard to detect much taste

Buttermilk Channel (Brooklyn 5 of 12)

2011-06-20T16:10:00.003-04:00

Last month we visited Buttermilk Channel in the very southern end of Carroll Gardens. (Note: it's a significant walk from the F/G Smith Stop) And actually during our early dinner, the crew for Men In Black 3 took over a 6-block section of Court Street.

This restaurant has one of the better "vibes" of any new restaurant I've experienced since Franny's opened. There's energy, happiness, brightness, and multiple great smells. Upon arrival, I think we were the only people there that the owner didn't know. Genuine hugs, hellos and smiles were dole out by the dozen. The restaurant filled up beyond the owners' circle as we were leaving.

I waited for SOS (getting the pattern, here?) at the bar and enjoyed a "mug" of Captain Lawrence Liquid Gold. Nice bartender; he provided me tastes of a few different bitters. That was fun. SOS arrived and wanted a cold diet coke (it was the May's hottest night.)

Onto the food. Everything was tasty, but nothing was worth a special trip. If you live near here or are visiting a friend, this is a great option.

We started with a lovely butter lettuce salad with a green goddess dressing. The dressing was fine. But the lettuce was tremendous. What a strange thing to say, but I can't remember the last time I had lettuce this perfect in texture and flavor.

Additionally, the slow-roasted spareribs were enjoyable, but more forgettable.

For entrees, SOS had the hamburger with cheese (classic choice by her) and I had the lamb salad. The burger was nice - charred exterior, juicy and rare interior, melting grilled onions and slightly-too-salty fries. You could have this same burger at 15 different Brooklyn restaurants.

Now, the lamb salad was different. It included shreds of braised lamb shank and a soft-boiled egg over romaine (nice but not revolutionary like the above). There were small roasted cauliflower florets and a few other ingredients. The gooey egg, soft lamb and cool, crisp romaine were a great combination. It was an excellent composed salad.

Now, would you go out of your way for amazing butter lettuce? If so, then this is the place for you. If not, keep Buttermilk Channel in mind for your next visit to Carroll Gardens.

Dinner for two with snacks, appetizers, and entress was $83 after tax and tip

June Cocktail - Mojito

2011-06-14T13:58:00.006-04:00

In Mid-August, I'm posting about the June cocktail. Why? Well, the mojito has been difficult for me to figure out. We've made a lot of them and I'm still not sure I have "perfected" a house mojito. Perfected is in the eye of the beholder (me in this case, and I feel there's still work to be done.)

Anyhow, the mojito is above-everything refreshing.

Early in the process, I realized that we loved the mint flavor but don't like a big wad of mind in our glass. We also realized that the the drink can tolerate a significant amount of lime juice.

So, the Localvore Mojito is:

2 ounces rum (more on choice later)
1 ounce lime juice
2 barspoons of confectioners' sugar
10 - 15 leaves of mint (spearmint or peppermint)

In a pint glass, combine lime juice, mint leaves and sugar.
Muddle for a honest 30 seconds (same amount of time if you double or triple the drink).
Add rum.
Add a lot of ice.
Stir.
Strain into glass already filled with ice and rim has been slicked with juiced lime section
Fill glass with mineral water.
Give one quick stir.

A few clarifying points we found:
Confectioners' Sugar - I tried simple syrup, superfine sugar, agave and even made a sirop de canne. Nothing made a nicely sweetened drink like confectioners' sugar. I don't really know why.
Rum - I enjoyed trying a few different rums. A darker rum worked better than white rums. But I don't know if I'd spend a lot of money on a rhum agricole for mojitos. I am trying to keep my bar American and found this Massachusetts rum to be delicious.
Stirred, not shaken - I didn't want so much dilution or frothiness, so I stirred.
Lemon - When making a batch, I substituted lemon for a quarter of the lime and found that it was different but delectable nonetheless.
Bubbles - Whatever you do, do not use something without significant bubbles. It makes the drink more lively and tasty. Again, I don't know why.

April and May Cocktails

2011-05-30T21:41:00.002-04:00

There were no April and May cocktails. More drinking starting tomorrow...

March Cocktail - Tom Collins

2011-05-30T21:33:00.005-04:00

I'll admit the Tom Collins was a disappointment. Not a drink that I couldn't enjoy, but more or less a bland drink that I could never achieve balance within.

I bought Tom Gin specifically for this drink and then played with the other ingredients.

My final recipe included:

2 oz. Tom Gin
1 oz. simple syrup
1/2 oz. lime juice
sparkling water to fill

In a highball full of good ice, I added the ingredients, stirred and sipped. My feeling - fine, nothing great.

Locanda Vini e Olii Visit (4 of 12)

2011-05-30T21:17:00.002-04:00

Last month, we visited arguably the most charming restaurant in all of Brooklyn. I'd been wanting to go there for ten years (before we even lived in Brooklyn). The restaurant: Locanda Vini e Olli.

What makes a restaurant charming (to me)? I thought about this a lot since our meal. There are probably five aspects that make a place charming:

Lighting - The restaurant's lighting and the ambient lighting from the street create a cozy feel that doesn't feel forced. Everyone looks nice in this lighting and you can actually see everyone in the restaurant.
Age - The restaurant walls, tables, wainscoting - all of it feels aged but not dated or beaten up. Many times you enter a restaurant and there are scuff marks on the bottoms of doors, the chairs and tables sit unevenly, and the paint looks worn. Not here. It all feels like a different time, but a very clean and organized different time.
Graciousness - The staff inserted information and highlighted menu items in perfect balance. And the way they spoke to us made us feel in complete control.
Flowers - A few, big bouquets make a space more charming.
Wine service - The correct, impeccably clean wine glasses along with perfectly decanted and served wine makes a restaurant more charming.

We were fortunate to go with our friends - Drink & Eat. Great conversation and outstanding lectures on the importance of long-term care, country weekend living, and the plight of middle school.

So what did we eat. Well we had the tasting menu and it felt like we had everything at the restaurant. Among the many dishes were a series of tremendous pastas - including one made without wheat flour (chestnut flour instead). All were perfectly cooked and allowed the noodle to shine; the sauce just supported the noodle. We had marinated anchovies that were excellent - sweat, salty and a little fishy. And at the end we had a tremendous rare duck breast that nobody could finish.

Even the marinated olives tasted better than olives at specialty stores or other restaurants.

We enjoyed two bottles, allowing the captain to select the second bottle. He picked an excellent red that was priced right in-line with my first selection (that's a huge pet peeve of mine).

Locanda isn't cheap, but it's a great value. We had four tasting menus, 2 bottles of wine, tax & tip for $360 (for four).

February Cocktail - The Dark & Stormy

2011-04-09T19:30:00.009-04:00

This has been one of my favorite cocktails for the last decade. What’s not to like – rum, ginger ale, lime, ice? After 14 variations in February (and early March), I have a few suggestions:

Don’t make this with fountain ginger ale. Schweppes is pretty meager in flavor, bubbly, but heavy in texture, leaving you a drink with more viscosity and less taste.
A smaller drink is better. Filling the glass with soda results in watery drink. If you’re a fast drinker (like me), then this is difficult.
Fresh lime is best. No lime is better than lime syrup. I didn’t try bottled lime juice but think that’s probably ok, but lime syrup was bad.

If you’re planning to make a large amount, consider making your own ginger beer. It’s not hard to do and requires one day planning.

My recipe produces a balanced but not strong drink. I like to serve in a footed pilsener glass with significant ice.

1 ½ ounces OLD MONK rum
1 ounce Morris Kitchen's Ginger Syrup
½ ounce fresh lime juice
4 ounces fresh seltzer
1 slice lime

Mix rum, syrup, lime juice in a glass.
Stir vigorously.
Add ice to fill glass.
Add 4 ounces seltzer.
Coat the rim of glass with fresh lime.

Outside of ginger syrup, I’d consider these three ginger beers (in no order)

Brief Interruption from Lands End

2011-04-08T21:20:00.002-04:00

I received this note today. I made a little order of deeply discounted stuff. Really nice - I'm strangely touched. We've spent thousands at Amazon, hundreds at Zappos - no notes though.

Tanoreen (3 of 12)

2011-03-24T12:24:00.003-04:00

Earlier this month, we went to visit Tanoreen – a famous Middle Eastern restaurant. I’ve wanted to eat at Tanoreen for at least 5 years. I heard and read over and over again about the high-quality food.

This time, SOS and I took some friends, Dance & Stretch. They’re a great couple to eat – open-minded and interested.

The place is “nice for ethnic” but not designed to impress. It didn’t seem to matter as the restaurant was absolutely full by 7:15.

We decided to order four appetizers and two entrees. It was plenty of food; slightly too much. To start, the accompanying pita and lavash were tremendous and plentiful. Unlike a lot of pita, the pita was soft, pliant, & slightly salty. The lavash was crisp and coated in sumac (I believe) – delicious as well.

Of the appetizers, I preferred this never-before-seen dish – Armenian dried beef. It was slices of dried beef (akin to jerky), covered in a slightly sour tomato sauce. The meat had a pleasing chew. The sauce, the beef, and some pita – it was excellent. Dance enjoyed this pickled cauliflower salad that also was fantastic. Stretch & SOS enjoyed all the appetizers.

The entrees were delightful as well. I think the baked eggplant was a bit better than the kibbie. I hadn’t tasted kibbie in a long time and was keen to order it here. They served us two thin pieces of pressed lamb/wheat germ (imagine 4x8” rectangles about 1/2” thick). Inside this sandwich, was a ground lamb filling that was succulent, lean, and fragrant. Nonetheless the pressed meat couldn’t stop us from thinking of Pennsylvania scrapple.

The baked eggplant however was tremendous. It combined eggplant, lamb, and cheese in a casserole like setting. The eggplant’s bitterness matched perfectly with the lamb’s richness. I couldn’t stop spooning more and more onto my plate (not behavior SOS typically approves of).

We ended with knafeh. It's a dessert with fresh cheese (something resembling drained ricotta) inside fried pieces of shredded phyllo soaked in rose water with pistachio essence (perhaps). I thought the cheese wasn’t interesting but the phyllo, well – I’m still thinking about that.

4 appetizers, 2 entrees, 2 beers, 1 dessert, tax, tip – all came to $140

Fonda (Brooklyn 2 of 12)

2011-02-27T11:41:00.006-05:00

Continuing our monthly dinners, last Friday, we visited Fonda in nearby South Park Slope. This is on a great block with beer table, Grab, and nearby to Grumpy. So if there's a wait, you have great options.

Truth be told, Fonda was the 12 seed on our list. We've been eating and making a lot of Mexican food from Rick Bayless & Diane Kennedy books and so were probably seeking out (subconsciously) a Mexican option. I could tell SOS wasn't very excited.

Of course, she asked if I made reservations. Of course, I said, "It's a small ethnic restaurant in Brooklyn. I'm sure they don't take reservations for two." And of course - they do, the restaurant was full, and we did wait.

Fonda is a lovely space. The atmosphere is festive-relaxed. The music was just audible. And the lighting was romantic but we could easily read our menus.

Overall, the food was fantastic. We were surprised, delighted, and sated.

We ordered the guacamole, fish salpicon, carne asada, enchiladas mole oaxacequeno.

Guacamole was very nice; it was of the chunky, straight-forward variety (nearly all avocado), served with these thick, pliant housemade corn tortillas. The tortillas were fantastic.
Fish Salpicon was delicious and the only dish that felt tiny. In a small bowl (think smallest pyrex you have at home), we received chopped fish that had been breaded and fried, combined with cilantro, red onions, and maybe vinegar. This dish also came with those tortillas. A little salpicon on a tortilla - it was fantastic and something I've been thinking about since - how will I recreate that at home (I think so much depends on those homemade slightly chewy tortillas that I probably will not.)?

Carne Asada was outstanding. The classic skirt steak came on a creamy, piquant, smoky mystery sauce and wild mushrooms. The meat was moist, flavorful, and right-sized. The sauce was so good that if I had any of those tortillas, I would have try to sop up every last bit.
Mole Oaxacqueno was equally outstanding. Shredded dark chicken meat and sauce filled three enchiladas and then the sauce covered, melted cheese, and a healthy dose of cilantro. The sauce was tremendous. Too often moles taste too chocolatey (as if the kitchen is trying to prove they have chocolate) or too powdery (from not cooking the dried chiles long enough). This sauce had neither problem. It was deep, rich, slightly sour, and savory.

SOS drank the white sangria and I had the hibiscus margarita. Both were fine; the re-hydrated hibiscus was beautiful but there wasn't much flavor imparted by it.

Overall, we'd go back to Fonda in a heartbeat. While we really dislike the F train, we'd recommend (if you don't live nearby) braving the beastly train to eat at Fonda.

($95 total for 2 appetizers, 2 drinks, and 2 entrees)

January Cocktail - The Old Fashioned

2011-02-15T16:17:00.010-05:00

The Old Fashioned may be the oldest cocktail. There are dozens of recipes, typically the drink calls for:

whiskey
sugar
bitters
citrus twist

I made the Old Fashioned about 15 times in Janu ary. At the end of the month, I came to a few preferences:

Rye over Bourbon - less sweet
Grapefruit bitters over orange - less sweet
Angostura bitters are important but in small amounts

So my "official" Old Fashioned is simple to make, but takes some time (perfect for finishing touches on dinner).

Ingredients:

1 1/2 oz. Rye (I used Old Overholt)
1 demerra sugar cube
1 strip orange peel (no white part, orange variety didn't matter)
1 dash Angostura bitters
3 dashes grapefruit bitters (I used The Bitter Truth)

Recipe:

Add sugar cube, orange peel, bitters to glass
Mash significantly
Add rye.
Leave alone for 3-5 minutes (allows for the sugar to dissolve)
Stir
Add ice

I often left the ice to melt for a few minutes and found the diluted water improved the drink a bit.

A COCKTAIL OF THE MONTH

2011-02-15T16:16:00.003-05:00

In a spirit or mood to try cocktails out at home, I'll be experimenting with different cocktails throughout the year. My (insignificant) goal is 12 cocktails, roughly one per month. Recipes and thoughts to come.

Good Fork Visit (Brooklyn 1 of 12)

2011-02-02T11:34:00.005-05:00

There are plenty of sites that review each dish and photograph the food. I won't bother adding to that.

On Friday, the sweetest-of-sweethearts (aka SOS, aka my wife) and I visited The Good Fork in Red Hook (Brooklyn). Red Hook on Friday, January 28, was a snowy and desolate place, complete with man-eating puddles.

Good Fork is pretty nice. To us, the entire experience was on par with Flatbush Farm, probably not as good as The Vanderbilt.

I ordered a fine burger with salty tempura onion rings and SOS had a lovely piece of striped bass with root vegetables and soft farro (I think).

Five takes on the experience:

I don't like when the wait staff needs 30 seconds to describe each special.
I dislike when the wait staff doesn't tell me the specials' prices.
Good Fork is very much a modern American restaurant. If there are Korean influences, they are subtle.
I ordered a margarita. The drink - pretty tasty - was unwieldy as it arrived in an ice-filled pilsener glass.
This is a nice little neighborhood bistro making good, not different, food in a comfortable environment.

To us, not worth two buses and some waiting, but not a bad experience.

$95 Total - 2 apps, 2 entrees, 1 cocktail

Condiments: New York Style Sweet & Sour Onions

2011-01-13T13:40:00.003-05:00

This recipe is slightly adapted from one that the good folks at BARK hand-out.

shopping = easy
difficulty = easy
expense = low

4 large yellow onions, sliced thinly
1 t. canola oil
1 12 oz. San Marzano Tomatoes
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
3/4 cup sugar
1 T. salt

Heat a large wide pan over medium heat
Add oil to pan and swirl
Add all the onions at once and stir for 1 minute
Add salt
Cook onions for 5 minutes (translucent and slightly brown)
Puree the tomatoes, vinegar, sugar until smooth
Add tomato mixture to onions and stir for 1 minute
Lower heat to medium-low and cook for 45 minutes
Let the mixture cool to room temperature and then store in clean glass jar (in fridge)d

This is great on a bagel and really excellent in a turkey sandwich where the bread is hot and the turkey is bland.

12 restaurants of 2011

2010-12-23T09:30:00.005-05:00

We don't explore Brooklyn enough. So in 2011, we'll be visiting 12 well-known restaurants that I have never visited.

We'll dine at one per month and I'll post impressions here. Aside from Brooklyn Fare, we'll try to keep the bill for two consistently at $100 total (tax, tip, everything).

Here are the 12 restaurants (in no order).

Buttermilk Channel
Char No. 4
Brooklyn Fare
Roberta’s
Good Fork
Tanoreen
Dressler
Applewood
Fonda
Prime Meats
Vinegar Hill House
Locandi Vini e Olli

Simple Chicken Braise

2010-12-23T09:23:00.003-05:00

So my kids are loving hot and saucy dishes (no pun, really) this winter. I invented this (I think) last week with a few ingredients in the fridge.

Chicken Braise
shopping = easy
difficulty = medium
expense = low

4 chicken thighs (skin-on), extraneous skin and fat removed, patted dry
3 carrots, sliced in half and then cut into 1/2" half-moons
1 onion, large dice
5 garlic cloves, peeled
5 red potatoes, peeled and large dice (match the onion)
3 T. canola oil
1/2 cup chicken broth (low-sodium) or water
1 t. salt
1/2 t. sugar

In large OVEN-SAFE pot, heat 2 T. canola oil over medium-high heat
Add all for thighs, skin-side down
Leave chicken alone for 6 minutes
remove chicken from pot to bowl
increase heat to high
[preheat oven to 400]
add onions and garlic cloves to pot
saute for 1 minute
add carrots and potatoes to pot
saute for 5 minutes
add chicken and accumulated juices back to pan
add broth/water
add salt and sugar
bring to boil
turn off stove, put on lid, put pot in oven
bake for 15 minutes
remove from oven and eat over rice or with crusty bread

Condiment 1: Cilantro Sauce

2010-11-09T19:36:00.002-05:00

Very simple and hardly a recipe at all.

1 bunch washed and dry (important) cilantro
2 washed scallions, cut into 1" pieces
1 t. salt
1 t. agave
1 t. lime juice

Pulse in food processor. Serve same day.

Homemade condiments

2010-11-09T19:34:00.002-05:00

We're back to roasting a couple chickens per week. The weather is cold. I can put some root vegetables under the birds that will taste great and fill the kids up. It's convenient and become second-nature.

Though I've grown a little tired of the chickens, the family still loves it. That led me to making my own condiments. They are really simple to make, taste fresh, and enliven other foods. In other words, they add.

We'll be exploring condiments in the next few posts

iced coffee - improved

2010-09-05T13:44:00.003-04:00

Over the last two months, I've made 13 batches of iced coffee. Some ok, a few terrible, & a few great. Here are lessons I've learned and hope this improves your homemade iced coffee. From my calculations, my homemade iced coffee costs 3.3 cents/ounce. Out, it can be as much as 27 cents/ounce.

Tips for Iced Coffee

Use fresh beans, bought in bulk. Buy 1/3 pound for 2 cups of ground coffee.
Grind the beans as soon to use as possible. Have a shop grind them coarsely (3rd to most coarse setting)
Use tap water that sat out overnight (why?).
Use medium or light roasts - french and dark roasts produce a bitter iced coffee

Process for Brewing Iced Coffee

2 cups ground beans to 4 cups water in glass or ceramic.
Stir for 30 seconds - you'll see a tan plume
Cover with plastic wrap
Leave on counter for 20 to 24 hours, stir 2 or 3 times during this time.
Strain into a pitcher
Using a pour-over brewing system (Chemex, Melitta, Clever, etc.), pour strained iced coffee through rinsed filter
Store filtered, strained iced coffee in glass jar for 2 weeks in Refrigerator

Process for Making an Iced Coffee

Fill 16 oz. pint glass with as much ice as you can fit
In measuring cup pour 1 part iced coffee (I use 3 oz.) and 1 part water
Add simple syrup to taste (into measuring cup
Pour into pint glass slowly
Add milk to taste

corn essence

2010-08-11T19:32:00.003-04:00

It's time. CORN! Don't make this unless you have use for the kernels. This is a corn 'broth' that makes anything and everything taste good. I would add it to anything that calls for broth. I would even think of adding 1 part essence (cold), 1 part tonic, 1 part gin. Delicious.

Bring 1 quart of water to a boil in a shallow pan.
Add 6 corn cobs.
Add bottoms of cilantro or basil.
Simmer for 30 minutes.
Strain.
Put liquid in a clean pan and reduce by 50%.

Refrigerate and use within 3 days.

Blueberry Sherbet

2010-08-11T19:25:00.002-04:00

Remember, sherbet has 1 "r," not 2. Ok, we got that straight. I've been making quarts of ice cream weekly and this seems to strike the balance between satisfying, lightish, and summery goodness.

Sherbet - Milk - Eggs = Ice Cream

Blueberry Sherbet
shopping = easy
difficulty = medium
expense = medium

3 pints blueberries
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup water
1/4 t. kosher salt
3 T. lemon juice
2 t. vodka, (I use dogfish vodka - local ingredients)
2/3 cup heavy cream
(if you are going to buy one organic, high-quality item here, make it the cream)

In a medium saucepan, add blueberries, water, salt, sugar
Using a potato masher, mash mixture carefully, 2 minutes
Bring mixture to simmer.
Simmer 5 minutes
Cover and cool for 1 hour
Press mixture through a strainer into a glass/steel container.
Cool mixture overnight (the remaining blueberry mash is a great fresh jam.)
[Next Day] Whisk cream to soft peaks.
While whisking (or with KitchenAid on low), slowly pour in blueberry mixture.
Whisk for 20-30 seconds - some white streaks is ok.
Turn on ice cream machine and pour in mixture.
Churn for 15-20 minutes (SHERBET SHOULD NOT BE STIFF. THAT WOULD BE TOO FAR.)
Put into pint containers and freeze for 2+ hours

Fennel + Sweet Potato side dish

2010-04-09T11:18:00.003-04:00

this is a simple and enjoyable side dish.

Braised Fennel & Sweet Potato

shopping = easy

difficulty = low

expense = low

Secure a heavy-bottom, oven-safe pan.

1 Fennel bulb, fronds removed, cut into 8 pieces
1 Sweet Potato, peeled, cut into 16 pieces
1 T. butter or olive oil
1 t. salt
1/2 t. pepper
1 cup water

Heat butter (or oil) on medium-high heat to foaming but NOT browning stage
Preheat oven to 350.
Add fennel and sweet potato, ensuring each piece has a little butter on bottom
Cook for 5 minutes NOT moving vegetables
Warm water in another pot with salt and pepper
Pour water over vegetables
Move pan to oven.
Bake for 15-20 minutes until liquid is mostly reduced and knife slides out of sweet potato easily

remove from oven and cool for 5-10 minutes.

enjoy

APAW 4 - fig and walnut tart

2010-01-06T20:10:00.002-05:00

Fig & Walnut Tart

I wanted to try something all-season to see if I could work on a "go-to" pie. I came across a few variations of this tart between Claudia Fleming's The Last Course, Alice Waters Chez Panisse Desserts, and Baking Illustrated.

I settled on the Baking Illustrated recipe and substituted Cointreau in, Brandy out.

The recipe called for the Italian dough "Pasta Frolla." I was excited to work with that type of dough as it's supposedly more forgiving.

Well long story short the tart was nice, homey, and tasty - but nothing great. I rolled out a slightly uneven crust which lead to some nice crackly sections and other cakey sections.

Next time, I'll substitute out half the walnuts for pine nuts, when they go down in price. Have you seen the price of pine nuts today?

APAW 3 - Apple Pie

2009-12-25T19:03:00.003-05:00

Same pie as APAW 1 but my crust was even better. I may have been too generous with the egg wash.

The 3 pounds of apples this time were:

1 lb. Stayman Winesap

1 lb. Pink Lady

1 lb. Honeycrisp

this ended up a little mealier - just a little, but more fragrant that APAW 1.

APAW 2 - Lemon Tart

2009-12-25T19:00:00.002-05:00

I made the lemon tart from Alice Water's The Art of Simple Food last week. The curd is excellent. You can tell the crust recipe is meant to try and make it sound simple, but it didn't taste that great and had texture issues. But it was simple.

My changes were few:

1) Meyer Lemons instead of regular Eureka lemons (aka grocery store lemons)

2) 2/3 of the recipe's sugar

APAW 1 - Apple Pie

2009-12-14T16:23:00.002-05:00

I made an apple pie yesterday. I rolled out my first pie crust in 4 years. And making crust is stressful. there are millions of recipes and like with most 'commodity' recipes, i look to Cooks' Illustrated. I won't print an apple pie recipe since those are also easily found.

They had a couple great tips:

it's better to have a slightly tacky (or wet) dough since you can add flour
use a tapered rolling pin with a clockwise rotation
chill rolled out bottom crust while rolling out the top crust

Here are my great tips

use about 3/4 the apples any recipe calls for - it's always too much
use a lot of "table" flour to keep your dough from sticking
replace water with apple juice concentrate (learned this from someone talking about Alton Brown)
allow your pie to cool for 6 hours!

I chose the apples I like the best:

1 1/2 pounds Honeycrisp
1/2 pound Pink Lady
1/2 pound Mutsu

After eating a slice, my wife (also my harshest critic) found me cleaning the bathroom and said, "That is the best pie I've ever eaten. Any pie. Anywhere."

So far - APAW is a success. Next MEYER LEMON TART. Hopefully less stress.

APAW - Winter 2009/10 begins

2009-12-14T16:20:00.002-05:00

APAW - A Pie A Week - begins.

the fourteen-week pie making journey mimics Evan Kleiman's "a pie a day." (see here).

the schedule will be something like:

apple pie
lemon tart
sweet potato pie
pecan pie
pear and almond tart
coconut cream pie
cherry jam crostata

and then we'll fill out the rest...

Thai Chicken Broth

2009-11-22T06:19:00.002-05:00

This isn't the most local or authentic recipe you'll find here. But perhaps the most delicious.

Thai Chicken Broth

shopping = difficult

difficulty = low

expense = low

1 lb carrots, chopped coarsely

1" ginger, sliced

1 leek, sliced

1 onion, sliced

1 clove garlic

6 chicken thighs, on the bone without skin

2 lemongrass stalks

2 kaffir lime leaves

1/2 t. coriander seeds

1/8 t. turmeric

1 cinnamon (real stuff) piece

2 T. coconut milk

4 QT boiling water

heat large dutch oven or stock pot to medium high heat
add 1 T. canola oil
add leeks and onion with little bit of salt
toss together and cover for 3-5 minutes until edges of leeks brown
add carrots, lemongrass, ginger, and garlic clove
add salt and cover for 3-5 minutes
add chicken thighs, coriander, cinnamom, coconut milk, turmeric
lower heat to medium-low and cover for 3-5 minutes
add boiling water and turn heat to medium
bring soup to lazy boil for 1 hour, skimming the top of soup if/when possible.
remove from heat
remove chicken
let soup stand for 1 hour
strain soup and serve with jasmine rice, add chopped, cooked chicken on top

5 BEST New York City - Lattes

2009-10-22T10:39:00.002-04:00

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

Cafe Grumpy - no surprise here - all three locations are special (uses Ronnybrook Milk)
Ninth Street Espresso (Chelsea, not East Village) - The micro-foam in Chelsea is superior, in the EV, it's just average
Cafe Pedlar - with no bitterness or acidity at all
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
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

2009-09-13T19:41:00.002-04:00

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

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

lamb chops - quicky and tasty

2009-08-23T14:42:00.002-04:00

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

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

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

Corn Chowdah!

2009-08-10T21:10:00.002-04:00

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

2009-07-22T23:51:00.002-04:00

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:

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.
Gorilla Coffee @ GORILLA - Somehow, the iced coffee tastes better when at Gorilla.
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).
Blue Sky Bakery - they simply do everything very well.
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!

2009-07-12T10:34:00.003-04:00

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

1/2 pound of Long Island Sea Scallops
1/2 pound of Long Island Black Fish Fillet
1 pint non-greenhouse cherry tomatoes (heirloom preferably)
1 fresh, local white onion
1 lb. haricot vert, blanched
1/2 pound Israeli Cous Cous (non-Local alert), cooked like pasta
salt / pepper
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

2009-06-21T20:26:00.001-04:00

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?

local vinegar

2009-06-15T21:01:00.002-04:00

everywhere i turn (not physically, but to podcasts, blogosphere, magazines), people are stating just how easy it is to make vinegar.

if that's the case, can anyone point to a source of good, local vinegar? with the apples and grapes in our region, we should have some quality choices...

Pasta with Sugar Snap Peas

2009-06-14T13:46:00.003-04:00

Dinner was a hit. The primi was Tagliatelle with Sugar Snap Peas. Aside from the pasta and olives, it was all locally sourced.

Recipe Info

shopping = moderate

time = significant

technique = easy

Pasta with Sugar Snap Peas

1 lb dried tagliatelle (bionature brand)

1 lb sugar snap peas

1 garlic scape

3 scallions

1 to 3 T butter

handful oil-cured olives

salt / pepper

wash and clean peas
snap each pea at the end and pull out the string
cut each sugar snap pea on the bias, about 1/4 inch wide (this will take a long time)
cut the scape into the thinnest discs you can
cut the scallions into thin discs
heat large pot of water with fistful of salt
heat large saute pan with 1T butter on medium-high
when butter stops sizzling, add scallions and pinch of salt
saute 2-4 minutes
add scape and saute 1 minute
add sugar snap peas all at once and toss well
[put pasta in boiling water]
saute 5-7 minutes
add olives
turn heat low
add pasta and 1/2 cup pasta water
toss and toss and toss
add more butter for more deliciousness
add salt and pepper as you see fit
turn out into large bowl

farmer's market log - Saturday June 11th

2009-06-13T12:46:00.002-04:00

Yes, I liked Star Trek: The Next Generation (the TV show that is). No, I'm not writing this like Jean-Luc Picard.

Today's bounty was tremendous:

Milk Thistle just released their slow-process yogurt - we have a pint

Maxwell Farm's strawberries are too tiny and delicious not to buy, by the quart

Farmer Ray insisted I take a bag of sugar snap peas

And the fishing family had the greatest surprise - LOBSTERS that are fiery mad. We took 2 of them along with these tiny, sardine-like fish called SPEARLING (small fish = low, low mercury and better for the ecosystem).

Dinner will be DIVINE!

local food COMING bigger and tastier than before

2009-06-13T12:43:00.002-04:00

May passed. Early June passed. And not until Friday - June 11th, did we have a nasty HOT day. Just plain hot and sticky. Which then made me turn around and think about our great produce coming in from Jersey farmlands and the Hudson Valley.

I verified this at the food co-op last night. Finally, we're way beyond kohlrabi, turnips, & hothouse lettuces.

So I promise you the vast LOCALVORE-NATION that 2009 will be a bloggy-hot summer.

the nearly local sandwich

2009-04-25T13:25:00.003-04:00

Strange enough, but this combination is delicious.

2 pieces Matthews Whole Wheat Bread, toasted
Hawthorney Valley Lacto-fermented kim chee
Sprout Creek Farm Goat Cheese
Remembrance Farm Arugula

let's call it the Localvore-4!

Vermont - it stays with you..

2009-04-10T19:04:00.002-04:00

I was fortunate to visit an excellent client in Vermont this week. During the trip, we ate at The Alchemist in Waterbury. I arrived at 5:45 and the place was hopping; truly, just buzzing with good cheer. It's rare to walk into a new establishment in a never-seen-before town and just feel comfortable. We had housemade pickles, from local fall cukes and burgers from local cattle. Just great food. Oh, and the beer is all made downstairs with fine, mineral-rich VT water.

Then, the next morning, we headed over to The Red Hen and had fresh out of the oven croissants made with butter from a dairy 40 miles away! Honestly, it may have been the finest "thing" I've ever eaten.

I don't think I eat as well anywhere in the world, like I do along I-89.

Glen Fiona was just OVERPOWERING

2009-03-16T20:26:00.002-04:00

For a syrah, the Glen Fiona '97 Bacchus Vineyard Syrah was just big and fruity. Any complexity and interesting characters were lost in the last ten years. Too bad. Interestingly, this is a wine that Glen Fiona no longer makes due to the sale of the vineyard.

We enjoyed the wine over two days with a selection of fresh breads, local cheeses, and not-so-local olives. In any set, the syrah was neither delicious nor off-putting. Too bad again - I'm looking forward to the first TRULY oxidized wine from our vault.

Heron Hill 1998 even better

2009-03-07T21:49:00.002-05:00

Last week, we opened the Heron Hill Eclipse from 1999. That wine was delicious but somehow the 1998 tasted even better. We had it with good but standard pizza tonight and the wine and sauce sung together.

Heron Hill had a deep black cherry taste and winy, in a good way.

Alban Vineyards amazed us!

2009-03-07T21:48:00.003-05:00

Everything you hope for when cellaring a wine for 10 years came true with the Alban Reva Estate Syrah. The wine was tasty. I could use strange terms, but all that really happens was "wow, this wine tastes really winy in a great way and has no discernible flaws."

Faith was restored earlier this week.

a rare local FEBRUARY dish

2009-02-22T11:24:00.002-05:00

cabbage, pear cider, onion, (olive oil, salt, pepper) and a long, low steady heat makes something ethereal.

wine #2 - heron hill eclipse

2009-02-22T11:11:00.002-05:00

We opened the 1999 Heron Hill Eclipse and found a fantastic, balanced, and chewy meritage. It went really well with some delicious bread, local cheeses and not-so-local olives.

wine 1 of 8

2009-02-17T19:46:00.002-05:00

Wife and I opened the WEINGUT KNOLL (kuh-nohl) 2000 KABINETT RIESLING. After 8 + years, it was delicious. This is a wine from one of Austria's most celebrated wine makers and didn't disappoint.

Paired with a black pepper crusted roast chicken and roasted beets, this was both mouthful and cleansing.

a case of wine comes home

2009-02-17T19:44:00.001-05:00

i brought home a case of our wine and though little of it is local, i plan to discuss and describe teh wines here. so prepare yourself.

a rabbit is no chicken

2009-02-08T20:22:00.002-05:00

i made the Times rabbit recipe. it was tasty. the addition of coriander was lovely - both earthy and bright. but the dish would have been better with a good chicken. oh, and about 40% of the cost.

rabbit, it was fun, and another 10-11 months will transpire before i convince myself to give you another go in the pot.

until then, it's chicken, chicken, and a little pork!

daddy all done with Winter

2009-02-08T20:19:00.002-05:00

ok, the smell of our fresh douglas fir is a memory. the luxurious risotto for new year's is said and done. now, it's just cold and the foodstuffs are coming from FAR AWAY.

we're still buying local onions, potatoes and surprisingly delicious apples. and then meat and eggs - but that's it!

it's grim!

so spring, let's go. heck, i'm ready to skip right to the local asparagus and strawberries of June.

found a local session beer

2009-01-16T20:08:00.003-05:00

I've been on the hunt for a good, no scratch that, a fantastic session beer for a long time. My search is for something made within 200 miles. And while the Brooklyn Brewery standard beers are fine, I've never really taken to them (aside from blanche de Brooklyn). And Blue Point is pretty so-so.

My rules for a session beer:

easily procured
under $1.50 per beer at the grocery store
under 6%
under 40 IBUs
Made within 200 miles of NYC

Well enter SLY FOX DUNKEL LAGER! It's definitely got 2-5! I had my first one tonight and it has a similar profile to many of the great Bavarian beers, but a little fresher. And it comes in an aluminum can. After drinking this beer, I lifted the can and forgot just how much LIGHTER cans are than bottles. That's gotta factor into the carbon contest.

Winter Eggs

2009-01-16T20:07:00.000-05:00

winter eggs really taste so blah! anyone else finding this? once eating eggs from the farmer's market, going back to factory eggs is mighty hard.

Spring? Paging spring? You out there?

Oktoberfest - Playoffs conclusions

2008-11-26T11:42:00.002-05:00

the results were a little disappointing (sorry for the delay in post). H-P, Ayinger, Paulaner kicked American behind.

WINNER - Ayinger (somewhat surprising)

Oktoberfest - Playoffs

2008-10-16T21:01:00.002-04:00

Here are the brackets:

(1) Hacker-Pschorr___

(6) Chelsea Fest____|------------------------|

(3) Ayinger________ ____________

(4) Blue Point______|--------|

---------------|

(5) Weyerbacher____

(2) Paulaner_______|--------|

Note (1) and (2) didn't have to play in...

O'fest - final bracket (test 4)

2008-10-16T20:58:00.002-04:00

Tonight's test was among the two remaining beers in the play-in round - Victory Festbier and Blue Point Oktoberfest. I was expecting a Victory triumph. A route perhaps of epic proportions and I was WRONG!

Blue Point was the better beer. I even put a little Cabot Clothbound Cheddar (btw, have you had this cheese?) between tastes and still Blue Point in a upset ROUTE!

Oktoberfest - test (part 3)

2008-10-08T20:36:00.002-04:00

Test 3 had two draft beers face-off.

In one corner (and during the first quarter) was ROGUE Oktoberfest. In the other (second quarter) was CHELSEA Festbier. One coming all the way from OREGON. The other comes from just over the river.

Well, both were pretty boring. I felt like the Rogue impersonated some of the massive German breweries and their move to a lighter color, lighter flavor Marzen. It was pretty bad. Rogue - we were having such a good run with the XS, Dead Guy Ale, & Tracktown 100 Meter.

Chelsea Festbier is a middler! It's painfully average.

Winner - Chelsea Festbier

Tomato Soup

2008-10-01T23:26:00.003-04:00

In the northeast, this is the time of the year for tomato soup to shine. The red, ripe beefsteaks that remain are firm, but fully developed.

So this Sunday was a take on a recipe from the esteemed Deborah Madison. I liked the recipe because it called for 4 things: butter, good tomatoes, shallots, & salt.

Peel & finely slice 10 shallots
Cut along the equator - 3 pounds tomatoes
Squeeze out seeds
Rough chop tomatoes
Melt 1/2 stick of butter in pot
Add shallots at medium low heat for 10 to 15 minutes - do not allow to burn
Add salt
Add tomatoes and turn up heat
Add salt
Simmer for 30 minutes
Puree in food processor and serve with bread

It was pretty tasty. She called for a food mill (for which i have none) and that would have solved getting the occasional skin in my mouth - the only problem with this soup. Otherwise, pretty tremendous.

Oktoberfest - test (part 2)

2008-10-01T23:21:00.002-04:00

Test 2

Stoudt's Oktoberfest versus Ayinger Oktoberfest. Usually, I love the beers from Adamstown, PA. Stoudt's does a pretty fantastic job on all beers. And this one is good, but not special.

Tasting next to Ayinger's lager, it felt acrid and thin. Ayinger (not one of the six breweries selling beer in Munich during Oktoberfest) makes a balanced, malty, thick beer that is a fast 16.9 ounces of goodness!

Winner - Ayinger by a landslide

Oktoberfest - test (part 1)

2008-10-01T23:15:00.002-04:00

I figured it may be enjoyable to test some of the Oktoberfest beers I find against each other. Knowing I can't (or shouldn't) be drinking 8 or 9 in an evening. I'm moving along in a bracket method - beer versus beer.

Test 1

Weyerbacher Autumn Fest versus Geary's Autumn Ale. Ok, problem here - Geary's isn't a lager so this isn't a good test.

I proceeded anyway. Well, the Geary's was terrible. Ever want to like something, but you just can't. That's me and Geary's. No matter the beer - I find it terrible.

Winner - Weyerbacher. But this is one of their lower-quality beers. It's a win, but not a good one.

SUIT UP

2008-09-13T11:44:00.002-04:00

so due to my increased robustness, i needed 2 new suits. Why shopping for the suits, I started to ask the salesman about suits made in the US and if there was a discernible quality difference.

After a 20 minute monologue, he said that until this year, all suits made in China were terrible. The suits made in Italy were a mixed bag, but the suits MADE IN THE USA were always "completed properly." I learned that term to mean the stitch-work was excellent. Why bring this up?

Well, local is in the eye of the beholder. I want local basil to have sprouted within 100 miles. But, I consider a USA made (in my case Rochester, NY & Chicago, IL) suit local.

then all homebrew is local

2008-09-13T11:43:00.001-04:00

yeah, that's right. beer is 92+% water and so if you use your tap, then homebrew is LOCAL.

P E S T O - pesto, pesto, pesto!

2008-09-13T11:42:00.003-04:00

is it really local when the nuts come from CHINA (hey, even if the package says Italy, bet on China), the cheese from ITALY, the olive oil from SPAIN, & salt from MAINE.

well the basil is from JERSEY. I would not call pesto localvore. To me, the end product must be 75% (by weight) local.

home as brewery

2008-09-08T22:50:00.002-04:00

It's been awhile since I brewed. And to be honest, my last two beers were not worthy of sharing. I think I'm cleaning the primary fermenter and brew kettle too much. The faint scent of chlorine ends up ringing out in the end product, along with way too much head.

So I returned to the first beer style I ever homebrewed, but raised the ante. It's not the most amazing, dynamic, earth-shattering beer. The batch won't be a Saison Tripel IPA. Just good old-fashioned ALE. I did tweak the aroma hops and tried to give the batch a bit more punch.

The batch should begin active fermentation around this time tomorrow. Until then, my apartment smells sweet like malted barley.

Monday - Solid beer, bad name...

2008-09-08T22:45:00.002-04:00

I never understood why Dogfish named their Pumpkin Ale, Punkin' Ale. Doesn't it sound stupid? It does. Disagree? let's hear it. Anyhow, that was the big beverage for Monday.

It's actually delicious. I don't get any brown sugar or pumpkin. I smell a bit of spices, but can't make it out to be cinnamom. But the maltiness and crispness of this beer make it an idea session ale (in the American sense that a 7% ABV could be session-worthy). And it would accompany most meals nicely.

Found what? not a liking for this beer

2008-09-07T20:34:00.003-04:00

A friend recently relocated to New Jersey. Yes, some people do this (from Beer Capital of the Northeast - Williamsburg - Brooklyn). Anyhow, one perk, maybe the only perk is he has access to Founder's Brewing, from Grand Rapids, MI. As I know, one of the cult beer makers well sought after throughout the land.

Anyhow, it's not local to me, but I'm including the Founder's he provided in the big week. Sunday brought out Red's Rye. To me, this is an unbalanced beer with a thin, white head. It's bitter but not bitter enough to make you feel like "wow, this is hoppy bitter." It's malty, but not a malt bomb that makes you chew on each sip. Just disappointing.

Saturday - welcome my old friend...

2008-09-07T20:24:00.003-04:00

There are two defining beers that brought me to love beer. Sure, I drank plenty during high school and some during college. By senior year of college, we were fixtures every Thursday at Raleigh's. One Thursday, they poured Pyramid Hefeweizen. This is enough years ago that, Pyramid was making excellent, excellent beers. I was in awe and drank about 10 of these.

Anyhow, what was does that have to do with Saturday? I returned to Brooklyner Weisse, which I drink about once per year and is the only Brooklyn "core brand" beer I enjoy. So...

It pours with an amazing, big, aromatic head. The flavors open up as is warms a bit - citrus, malt, and just crisp. Every sip begs more food (local corn with a sandwich) and every bite begs another sip. Just delicious. See you next year.

Thursday - What happened.

2008-09-06T07:29:00.001-04:00

sadly, there was no ale on Thursday. i failed you.

Friday - Hopfen Magic!

2008-09-06T07:21:00.002-04:00

Brooklyn Brewery and G. Schneider released a collaborative beer for the second straight summer - Hopfen Weisse. It's a hoppy wheat ale that pours with an amazing head and not too strong of a lemon/citrus nose. That lemon aroma is what bothers me in many renditions of weisse. I feel like it's taken over!

Well, this ale is magic. It went perfectly with leftover pepper+corn chowder. I enjoyed the last bits - at room temperature - as much as the beginning. The beer has a perfect level of carbonation as well - enough to cleanse the palate but not too much to fill the belly.

Too bad I'm a fast drinker and this 16.9 oz beer is $6!

roasted bell peppers rule

2008-09-04T18:14:00.002-04:00

Is there anything that a roasted bell pepper doesn't improve? The local bell peppers are in and are fantastic. Usually, our home is swimming in bell pepper and corn chowder (a vegan dish no less). But as good as the bell peppers are this year; the corn is pretty terrible. Our favorite corn farmer stopped coming to the Saturday GAP farmer's market (he couldn't deal with the Greenmarket politics supposedly) and now the only farmer we trust has so little that it's picked over by 9am!

Anyone got great corn? Bring it over and we'll make beautiful chowder. and if you post a comment, you'll get a copy of the recipe - free of charge! that's right! hard to believe, no?

Wednesday beer - I'm a what? Marron? Same to you!

2008-09-04T18:08:00.003-04:00

Palo Santo is some bizarre and exotic wood from Paraguay. Sourcing some exotic wood from South America and creating massive brewing vessels is definitely not a localvore best practice.

This is a massive beer. The label says 12%, but I would guess it's higher than that. I can't quite give you a sense of the flavors here. To me, it's a bit like someone added smokey bourbon to a nice brown ale (like this one). I like bourbon and brown ale, not the combination.

note to self: eat a big meal before consuming this beer

note to self2: it doesn't really help to eat a big meal

Tuesday Beer - Chateau Jiahu ('07)

2008-09-04T18:04:00.004-04:00

Jiahu cellared in my basement for twelve months. At six months, the beer tasted off and cloyingly sweet. At twelve months, the bottle I consumed was malty, sweet, and Mead-y. I love a good mead, so that's a positive. But, like so many Dogfish beers, it's just too boozy for me to really enjoy with anything. The alcohol overwhelmed the green chili I made (with local peppers, onions, chicken and garlic). I saved a bit to enjoy with local peaches, but that also was a poor pairing.

Monday Beer - SLAM HUH-KEL?

2008-09-04T17:55:00.003-04:00

Weyerbacher is bringing some very interesting beers to market. I've been a fan of the Merry Monks and Quad (the only Trippel/Quadrupel duo I enjoy).

So when news got out about the Slam Dunkel, I asked the co-op beer manager to order a case. The beer doesn't give a strong WHEAT flavor profile, rather has kind of a sweet, malty taste up-front, followed by a strong, boozy aftertaste. That sounds bad but it's actually quite appealing, so long as you're not trying to compare to Aventinus.

BIG WEEK of BEER

2008-09-04T17:54:00.002-04:00

This week, I'll explore a different local beer each evening and provide some thoughts. I'm doing this solely for you - the reader.

Speaking to me in my sleep...

2008-07-05T20:16:00.002-04:00

Few know that I really enjoy being semi-conscious on a Saturday morning while listening to "Speaking of Faith." While the show covers religious topics that often don't interest me, Krista Tippett is nearly as captivating as my radio crush.

This morning, the interview was with Barbara Kingsolver. And the topic was about the morals and spirituality of eating local and naturally. Mrs. Kingsolver made two excellent points that got me to perk up as I coddled the baby firestorm.

Our society has to yet to put a moral value on the suffering attributed to eating foods from faraway places.
Until WWII, eating locally or organic was just the way of life. In 50 years, we've allowed a few, select food companies and politicians change our perception of eating to the point where Americans don't even find an Argentine pear amazing.

It's a full hour, but the episode is extremely interesting. Kingsolver moved her entire family from the faux city of Tuscon to southwestern VA and ate only the food they could harvest or buy at the farmer's market. They thought they would discuss going "without" but instead found themselves with abundance.

Tasting off Pilseners

2008-07-05T20:08:00.002-04:00

So, I've dedicated June and July to Pilsener. A few weeks back, I had a 3-lager taste-off. I tasted Penn Kaiser Pilsner, Troegs Sunshine Pils, & Lagunitas Pils (not local).

The taste-off was a major let down. Troegs demolished the other two. Lagunitas was as bland as Coors (at least as I remember Coors from 1998) and Penn tasted skunky.

The next week pitted Troegs versus Brooklyn Pilsner. A slightly closer contest but still a decidedly better lager coming from Harrisburg. I've never been to Harrisburg, but dare I say that Troegs is probably the pride of the 'burg in 2008.

To Chris and John - well done!

Pulling mussels from a shell...

2008-07-05T20:04:00.002-04:00

Ok, I couldn't resist that title. A simple local meal can consist of this most delectable, inexpensive, and healthy protein. At the farmer's market, we picked up sweet onions, mussels, local wine and a loaf of bread (probably made from Dakota flour, but baked nearby). Simple and delectable.

We also purchased a skate wing that came out famously with the addition of Vermont butter and Capers (from Capri, ok, not local, at all). As I walked away from the nice fisher-family, I realized we purchased the two cheapest seafoods they had and then 10 hours later and an immensely wonderful meal. Alice Waters would be proud!

uh-oh is it spring

2008-05-13T21:32:00.001-04:00

Don't look now, but I'm pickling ramps, blanching asparagus, and poaching cage-free eggs! Finally, something to believe in!

tasty pig's feet

2008-05-13T21:31:00.001-04:00

the feet from Veritas Farm are an unquestionable success! Well, except for a little porcine hair, they are delicious!

Art of Simple Food - meal 2

2008-04-12T07:51:00.002-04:00

Another hit parade for Sunday dinner. This week was all about shallow-frying. We shallow fried pork shops and cauliflower. Both were divine. The recipe for the cauliflower called for making a sauce. And that sauce was fantastic - a combination of garlic, onions, scallions, & tomato paste.

We also made a lemon tart by combining two recipes - lemon curd and pate sucree. The lemon curd was made with 3 parts Meyer Lemon and 1 part Blood Orange. I have to admit to never making a lemon tart before and thus was pretty anxious about it. Will the curd set? Will the tart shell fully bake? I realized that anxiety is the opposite of simple. If you own the process, not the outcome, then you'll probably enjoy more journeys in life.

art of simple food - meal 1

2008-04-12T07:47:00.004-04:00

So week one was three aces! Braised chicken legs, pan-fried potatoes, blanched asparagus, and tangerine ice.

The braised chicken legs needed four ingredients. The potatoes only 2! Each were fantastic. The potatoes were so tasty that my 4 year old asked, "Daddy, can I have this for my birthday dinner?"

But the highlight was the tangerine ice. I used tangelos and organic sugar. Then each hour, we took the mixture out of the freezer and scrapped from the edges in. After four hours, we let it freeze for four hours. REMARKABLE.

mixing it up by getting simple

2008-03-22T10:12:00.002-04:00

Conventional wisdom has it that adding to your cooking repertoire requires complex technique, esoteric spices, & unique heat transfer (sous vide anyone).

That's one way, but probably a much harder way. A friend gave us a cookbook around the holidays - "The Art of Simple Food." I love Chez Panisse Vegetables and actually I love Chez Panisse. I don't consider it to be the 'best' restaurant in America, but it's my favorite one.

Anyhow, my repertoire is growing a little stale. How many ratatouille, poulet a roti, & bolognese can one family eat?

So, as Spring begins, I'm going to make a meat, vegetable, sauce & dessert from this book each weekend. Let's see how it goes.

something coming up...

2008-03-22T10:11:00.001-04:00

don't look now, but the tulips are pushing out of the soil.

not too long before ramps and asparagus.

have hoof will travel

2008-02-24T21:12:00.002-05:00

So I need about a 1/2 dozen pig's feet in April. Not smoked, not cured, not jellied - just raw pig's feet. This is something you can easily find in Chinatown, but it's probably from a factory farm in Iowa or, perhaps even China. We bought Duck eggs a year ago in Chinatown. And after coming home saw the "product of China" label.

But thanks to Steven, I found Stephanie at Veritas Farm. She's a short 2 hours from us and had heritage, humanely raised, pig's feet (frozen, of course). "Um, yeah I have them but why would you want them?"

"Well, I need them for xue riezi."

"Ah, okay, Anu."

Well, nevermind, we made an agreement for the feet. Now, I don't have a car. Stephanie doesn't deliver to New York City. Thank goodness for farmer's markets. Our favorite farmer, Ray Bradley, happens to be a good friend and neighbor to Stephanie.

Now, he'll bring the feet down to Grand Army Plaza. And I'll pick them up. How's that for low-carbon footprint.

Screaming for Ice Cream

2008-02-12T21:47:00.000-05:00

On Saturday, I decided to take the girls for an ice cream breakfast. Questionable? Definitely. There's a new ice cream shop on Atlantic Avenue, Blue Marble, that specifies in farm-fresh ice cream.

What a fantastic place!

Instead of the ubiquitous splenda, they offer stevia extract (necessary to sweeten iced coffee)
The plates and cups biodegrade in two months.
The proprietor offers organic, local, products.

A breakfast of champions (organic, grass-fed cream, organic eggs, sugar)!

Bio-deisel

2008-02-12T21:44:00.000-05:00

Have you seen this in your favorite restaurant's window? This is from The Farm. Besides a delicious lunch, this restaurant turns all that kitchen waste into fuel.

Is that renewable? Man's gotta have fried chicken, right? And why not turn the waste into fuel.

Trying for a local blanket

2008-02-12T21:31:00.001-05:00

So I wanted to purchase my cousin-in-law (originally from Hingham, with deep roots in the Ocean State) a local, warm blanket. In a recent copy of Edible Rhody (don't ask why), I found an add for Rhody Warm Blankets. Aha!

So I called up the RI Resource Conservation & Development Council. I think I got a personal home. When inquiring about the blanket, her voice lit up.

I asked, "is this a Rhode Island product?"

She replied, "Well..." a-ha!

She went on, "See the wool is all 100% RI and from sheep raised organically. But because there's nobody in the northeast that scours wool. So we send it to Minnesota. Then, we have it shipped to Western Massachusetts. There, the wool goes through a loom. Then, the workable wool comes back to Rhode Island and is made into a blanket."

"Hmm... Is that really local? I guess so."

"Sir, we the best we can and oh, we're sold out. Do you want to order one for next season?"

"Uhhh, ok."

What do you think? Local?

Beer - always a local treat

2008-01-13T10:20:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday, I met two friends for late-night pints. In every part of the country, people can drink locally. I bet there isn't a person living in the lower 48 that lives more than 250 miles from a craft brewer.

At my local pub, I had myriad local choices and selected these three pints.

Chelsea Pier 59 Pale Ale - this was on cask and pure heaven. This would be my session beer, if I drank out of the home regularly and could find this regularly. This had all the mouthfeel I look for in a beer and then the perfect balance of hoppy bitterness, malty goodness, & refreshing crispness. the -ness TRIFECTA.

Captain Lawrence Liquid Gold - majestic and massive.

Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye - ok, not local, but reminiscent of the massive victory in Fort Worth, Texas.

local, but far from home

2007-12-29T18:09:00.000-05:00

We've been in Colorado this entire week, on the Western slope, to be exact.

I've been searching out local food stuffs and found a few interesting items.

Organic, local grape juice made at a winery nearby
Local (Southern Montana) wheat flour, ground in town
Lamb

Surprisingly, the lamb is hard to get. To buy Colorado lamb, in Colorado (CO has the fifth largest sheep population in the US), you have to go to the last remaining butcher in town (Quality Meats) and special order. You may ask, what's all the lamb in the grocery story. I went to the biggest store in town and saw cryovac after cryovac of Icelandic lamb. * sigh *

Anyhow, the lamb made a delicious meal, even if all the sides were made with California vegetables.

Oh, and if you're ever on the Western Slope, look out for the Palisade Brewery IPA. Pretty delicious stuff. And I here that DeBeque Winery practices sustainable growing practices. The gewurztraminer is nice, not great, but nice.

Back to sustainable Brooklyn, tomorrow....

Cabbage ROCKS

2007-12-16T21:30:00.000-05:00

yes, you heard me. if you buy a great, local cabbage and treat it with love - it's delicious.

today, i shredded a savoy cabbage. i took out garlic confit from the fridge.

in a cast iron pan, i sauteed the confit. then added the cabbage and a 1/2 cup of water. reduce heat and let cook for 1 hour.

it was sweet and slightly bitter. DELICIOUS and just 2 ingredients.

local winter beers ... not so good

2007-12-16T21:20:00.000-05:00

Long a fan of Anchor Steam Christmas Ale, I thought, why not try the local winter seasonals. Winter seasonal is a loosely defined style that allows the brewer to add spices and herbs into a bottom-fermented (ale) beer. And the co-op had 5 different winter ales, so why not try them all. I mean, beer is 92+% water, so having it shipped from Utica is better than San Francisco, right? Well, not when they all taste terrible.

I had the following:

Great Divide Hibernation Ale - the best of the worst. It was malty and rich, but had a slightly acrid smell. The major problem with this beer, IT'S FROM DENVER!
Stoudt's Winter Ale - the best of the locals. it was neither here nor there. just a muddy cocoa-ish ale.
Smuttynose Winter Ale - drinkable but not worth it. Though, if you find their wheat wine, then that's worth it!
Brooklyn Winter Ale - pretty bad, meager ale. It's supposed to be in a Scottish Ale style. This is the rare time when I will say this about beer; I MAKE A BETTER SCOTTISH ALE.
Geary's Winter Ale - the worst of the lot and the only one I poured down the drain.

oye vay. i guess i can go back to the better local beers or try to enjoy the Anchor Steam now and then - a special treat.

Danny Meyer is a SHAM

2007-11-06T23:03:00.000-05:00

I wish my smartphone wasn't dead. I saw the most terrible thing the other day en route to work.

On a Wednesday, I'm walking west on West 16th street from Union Square. It's 7:45am. As I pass Union Square Cafe, I see a delivery coming in.

It's about 20 gallons of TUSCAN milk (I don't think they are reading the AMAZON reviews.). It's WEDNESDAY. RONNYBROOK is about 100 yards away.

When you're charging $4 for a cappuccino, you can afford local, well-cared for Milk. Meyer is a sham.

I sent a letter. let's see what they have to say.

localvore in California

2007-11-06T23:01:00.000-05:00

quick observations...

though hard to find, in between Starbucks and Peet's, there are some great local cafes throughout the Bay Area making exquisite coffee.

What's interesting is that the few I visited all use a local, organic milk. For some reason, that's pretty rare on in New York. I can only think of Cafe Grumpy going to the length to use Ronnybrook milk.

Localvore goes non-local & eats well

2007-11-06T22:53:00.000-05:00

So we took a trip to the Bay Area and to Chez Panisse.

A couple observations:

I love that Chez Panisse only serves purified city water - flat and sparkling. I love, even more, that they don't charge for the water. The restaurant recognizes the environmental destruction of sending glass-enclosed water from Italy to California.
I don't love that they sell grape juice from Italy though. You're telling me that Chez Panisse, all of 100 miles from the finest winemakers in the US, can't get a California grape juice?
Only a certain type of restaurant can list MILK on the menu right below the dessert wines and sell it. We had to order a second serving because the girls loved it so much.
And only a certain type of restaurant can serve a $7.50 serve listed as "A Frog Hollow Farm Warren pear with new crop Barhi dates, and Black Mission figs." I would guess most people would not order this. It's too easy right. Well, we did order it and I don't know where these dates come from but without even offering them to my wife or children, I finished them. AMAZING.

Overall the experience felt very local and lovely. we order 8 items and, aside from one, they all tasted of a well-made Bay Area meal.

Vegetarian is the new prius

2007-09-11T12:58:00.000-04:00

I read an interesting post by Kathy Freston. Raising livestock has an incredibly caustic impact on the environment. But haven't humans hunted and eaten land animals from the beginning of time? Yes, but that image is nowhere near the reality of animal production in 2007. Fast Food Nation will give you a quick documentary on the differences.

Using statistics and compelling logic, Kathy argues that removing meat from your diet does significantly more for the environment than driving a Prius, or even not driving at all.

What about the middle ground; eating only locally-raised, free-range meat. Then all the energy in creating and delivering hormones/antibiotics and subsequently transporting meat is removed.

month ends and what did we learn

2007-09-08T12:21:00.000-04:00

We learned that eating local in the summer is easy EXCEPT for a few things.

You probably don't realize how much you stop and "get something" quick, like a muffin. You probably don't realize how few cafes use local, organic milk. And you definitely didn't realize how hard it is to find starch with local ingredients.

at least I didn't.

But I did learn that August in Brooklyn does NOT require any non-local vegetables, fruits, meat or seafood.

And we learned that bread made from 100% whole wheat flour is dense.