(If you don't see the smiley face, you need to go back to kindergarten and repeat the day where they teach you how to use your imagination.)
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Happy Brunch
Earlier this week, the family went for Mother's Day Brunch at Amanda's in Hoboken. It was delightful, and clearly even my main course (crab hash with poached eggs and hollandaise) was having a fun time.
(If you don't see the smiley face, you need to go back to kindergarten and repeat the day where they teach you how to use your imagination.)
(If you don't see the smiley face, you need to go back to kindergarten and repeat the day where they teach you how to use your imagination.)
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
A Tale Of Two (Huge) Sandwiches: Part The Second
A couple of weeks after eating the White House sandwiches I mentioned in the first part of this post, I found myself in Brooklyn on a weekday afternoon in need of lunch. On days like that, sometimes I'll make a trip out to DeFonte's in Red Hook. While I was disappointed to learn that the DeFonte's hot roast beef hero is not, in fact, the sandwich featured in the "Sandwich Day" episode of 30 Rock (and, note to self, go to Fiore's next time I'm in Hoboken), it remains well worth the trip.
On a couple of previous visits, I've ordered the aforementioned hot roast beef hero (with fried eggplant, fresh mozzarella and cooking juices from the roast beef, delicious) and taken it to eat in nearby Red Hook Park. However, on this particular day the weather was unpleasant, so my plan was to get a sandwich and bus it back to my apartment before digging in. I wasn't sure a hot sandwich was the best choice given the anticipated delay of about 30 minutes, so I decided to go with a Nicky's Special.
This delicious sandwich has ham, capicola, salami, fried eggplant, provolone, hot salad (more on this in a moment), marinated mushrooms, lettuce, tomato, oil and vinegar. Because the small size sandwich (on 1/3 loaf of italian bread, $10) is too much food for one meal, but not enough for two, I decided to order the large size (on 1/2 loaf of italian bread, $12) and be sure to get two solid meals out of it. I'm afraid to say that the picture I took doesn't remotely do this sandwich justice, but take a look anyway:
If you're curious, there are better pictures on the web if you do a Google image search for "defonte's nicky special". You can't really tell from my picture, but half of the large sandwich is so much food that I wasn't hungry for dinner both days when I had the sandwich for lunch.
The hot salad is really what knocks this sandwich out of the park. Mixed spicy vegetables (probably marinated in a vinegar/peppers mix) provide some bite to cut the richness of the meat and the cheese and the fried eggplant. The only "problem", if it can be called that, is that the bread was stuffed so full of good ingredients that the hot salad tended to fall off the top, but this is still way preferable to a sandwich that's all bread. Highly recommended (as is the hot roast beef sandwich I mentioned above), and note that if you want to give it a try but don't frequent South Brooklyn, they recently opened a satellite location in Manhattan at 21st and 3rd.
On a couple of previous visits, I've ordered the aforementioned hot roast beef hero (with fried eggplant, fresh mozzarella and cooking juices from the roast beef, delicious) and taken it to eat in nearby Red Hook Park. However, on this particular day the weather was unpleasant, so my plan was to get a sandwich and bus it back to my apartment before digging in. I wasn't sure a hot sandwich was the best choice given the anticipated delay of about 30 minutes, so I decided to go with a Nicky's Special.
This delicious sandwich has ham, capicola, salami, fried eggplant, provolone, hot salad (more on this in a moment), marinated mushrooms, lettuce, tomato, oil and vinegar. Because the small size sandwich (on 1/3 loaf of italian bread, $10) is too much food for one meal, but not enough for two, I decided to order the large size (on 1/2 loaf of italian bread, $12) and be sure to get two solid meals out of it. I'm afraid to say that the picture I took doesn't remotely do this sandwich justice, but take a look anyway:
If you're curious, there are better pictures on the web if you do a Google image search for "defonte's nicky special". You can't really tell from my picture, but half of the large sandwich is so much food that I wasn't hungry for dinner both days when I had the sandwich for lunch.
The hot salad is really what knocks this sandwich out of the park. Mixed spicy vegetables (probably marinated in a vinegar/peppers mix) provide some bite to cut the richness of the meat and the cheese and the fried eggplant. The only "problem", if it can be called that, is that the bread was stuffed so full of good ingredients that the hot salad tended to fall off the top, but this is still way preferable to a sandwich that's all bread. Highly recommended (as is the hot roast beef sandwich I mentioned above), and note that if you want to give it a try but don't frequent South Brooklyn, they recently opened a satellite location in Manhattan at 21st and 3rd.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
A Tale Of Two (Huge) Sandwiches: Part The First
You know what's good? Sandwiches. Sure, a fancy meal is awesome every now and then, but sandwiches are delicious and filling and generally quite affordable. Honestly, I think the greatness of sandwiches is so universally acknowledged that I don't even need to say anything more on the subject.
A few weeks ago I found myself in Atlantic City for the 2011 ECAC Men's Hockey Tournament. The outcome of the games... well, we don't really need to talk about that. But I was happy to be down there because it gave me an opportunity to try out the White House Sub Shop. If you're not familiar with it, the White House is a famous deli not far from Trump Plaza (which, by the way, has free self-parking just a couple of blocks away) that's been turning out huge, awesome, cheap sandwiches for decades, and has the yellowed celebrity photos on the wall to prove it. You can't read a review of the White House without hearing stories of how people stop there on the way out of town to buy a bunch of sandwiches to take home, or have them delivered by courier, or how Frank Sinatra reportedly had a bunch shipped to his movie sets. So, I had to give it a try.
I had read stories of people waiting in line for an hour or more at the White House, but my arrival was conveniently in the lull between lunch and dinner and there were only a couple of people in line ahead of me. Once my number was called, I gave my order to the sandwich-maker (who called me "Chris" because apparently I look like a guy named Chris): a half tuna and a half White House Special. My plan was to eat the tuna for a late lunch/early dinner, and the Special (salami, ham, provolone, capicola) as a snack on my ride home later that night. It should be noted here that a half is on a half a loaf of bread - about a foot long, still a big sandwich. The tab for both sandwiches came in at around $14. I took my sandwiches to a little park across the street and dug in. Here's a picture of the tuna sandwich:
Or, let's be more precise: this is HALF of a half tuna sub, after I had devoured the first half before it occurred to me to take a picture. Note 20 ounce soda bottle shown in the background for perspective. You get a lot of sandwich for $7. The bread was fresh and awesome, and actually sturdy enough to basically hold all the ingredients; the tuna was chunky and tasty and not overly mayonnaise-y; the tomatoes were fresh; the onions and oil and vinegar gave it some kick; the lettuce... was lettuce. This was a delicious sandwich, and big enough that I couldn't finish it. (Without any chips on the side or anything, either.) Stashed the other sandwich in the trunk of the car (so the inside wouldn't smell like meat for days afterward), went to the game.
Well, I think the picture of the first sandwich demonstrates the flaw in my plan: these sandwiches are way too big to eat while driving. As a result, I wound up making my way back to the Parkway and pulling off at the first rest area I found, only a couple of miles up from the Atlantic City Expressway, to pick up a bottle of water and go to town on that bad boy. Unfortunately, because I was eating in the car (sorry Mom), I wasn't able to take a picture of the Special, so I'm borrowing these, with credit to Always Hungry New York:
In addition to the great bread and the delicious meats and cheese and lettuce and tomato and onion, note the hot pepper relish on top. That stuff was a particular highlight, definitely something that sets sandwiches from the White House apart from what you might find elsewhere. Because I wasn't all that hungry after eating the tuna sub earlier, I ate half of the Special and brought the rest home for my father to enjoy (and also out of guilt since I had made a sandwich with the last of the roast beef for lunch earlier in the day).
Incredible sandwiches. Just thinking about them makes me want to go have lunch right now. If you ever find yourself in Atlantic City, you should definitely make a stop. I'm told their cheesesteaks and meatball subs are excellent as well. (NB: They also have a location set to open in the Trump Taj Mahal sometime within the next couple of weeks.)
Part 2 soon to come...
A few weeks ago I found myself in Atlantic City for the 2011 ECAC Men's Hockey Tournament. The outcome of the games... well, we don't really need to talk about that. But I was happy to be down there because it gave me an opportunity to try out the White House Sub Shop. If you're not familiar with it, the White House is a famous deli not far from Trump Plaza (which, by the way, has free self-parking just a couple of blocks away) that's been turning out huge, awesome, cheap sandwiches for decades, and has the yellowed celebrity photos on the wall to prove it. You can't read a review of the White House without hearing stories of how people stop there on the way out of town to buy a bunch of sandwiches to take home, or have them delivered by courier, or how Frank Sinatra reportedly had a bunch shipped to his movie sets. So, I had to give it a try.
I had read stories of people waiting in line for an hour or more at the White House, but my arrival was conveniently in the lull between lunch and dinner and there were only a couple of people in line ahead of me. Once my number was called, I gave my order to the sandwich-maker (who called me "Chris" because apparently I look like a guy named Chris): a half tuna and a half White House Special. My plan was to eat the tuna for a late lunch/early dinner, and the Special (salami, ham, provolone, capicola) as a snack on my ride home later that night. It should be noted here that a half is on a half a loaf of bread - about a foot long, still a big sandwich. The tab for both sandwiches came in at around $14. I took my sandwiches to a little park across the street and dug in. Here's a picture of the tuna sandwich:
Or, let's be more precise: this is HALF of a half tuna sub, after I had devoured the first half before it occurred to me to take a picture. Note 20 ounce soda bottle shown in the background for perspective. You get a lot of sandwich for $7. The bread was fresh and awesome, and actually sturdy enough to basically hold all the ingredients; the tuna was chunky and tasty and not overly mayonnaise-y; the tomatoes were fresh; the onions and oil and vinegar gave it some kick; the lettuce... was lettuce. This was a delicious sandwich, and big enough that I couldn't finish it. (Without any chips on the side or anything, either.) Stashed the other sandwich in the trunk of the car (so the inside wouldn't smell like meat for days afterward), went to the game.
Well, I think the picture of the first sandwich demonstrates the flaw in my plan: these sandwiches are way too big to eat while driving. As a result, I wound up making my way back to the Parkway and pulling off at the first rest area I found, only a couple of miles up from the Atlantic City Expressway, to pick up a bottle of water and go to town on that bad boy. Unfortunately, because I was eating in the car (sorry Mom), I wasn't able to take a picture of the Special, so I'm borrowing these, with credit to Always Hungry New York:
In addition to the great bread and the delicious meats and cheese and lettuce and tomato and onion, note the hot pepper relish on top. That stuff was a particular highlight, definitely something that sets sandwiches from the White House apart from what you might find elsewhere. Because I wasn't all that hungry after eating the tuna sub earlier, I ate half of the Special and brought the rest home for my father to enjoy (and also out of guilt since I had made a sandwich with the last of the roast beef for lunch earlier in the day).
Incredible sandwiches. Just thinking about them makes me want to go have lunch right now. If you ever find yourself in Atlantic City, you should definitely make a stop. I'm told their cheesesteaks and meatball subs are excellent as well. (NB: They also have a location set to open in the Trump Taj Mahal sometime within the next couple of weeks.)
Part 2 soon to come...
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Taco In A Cone Is A Taco In A Cone
(With a nod to Ted Berg for the wording of the title.)
Well, that isn't really true; the biggest flaw with Target Field's new Walk-A-Taco (CBS Minnesota news item) is also the reason why this post's title is misleading. The Walk-A-Taco is not, in fact, a taco in a cone. Rather, it's a taco salad in a cone. Now, that isn't the worst thing in the world; the taco salad is a pretty good food item. But what it's not is a taco, which is a better food item. Here's a picture of a taco cone, as it was sold to me at the Twins' home opener on Friday, April 8, 2011:
I guess I had three main gripes with the Walk-A-Taco:
1. The Cone
Now, obviously you can't just take a regular hard taco shell, remake it into the shape of a cone, and call it a day. It'd be far too fragile (I can barely eat a hard taco without getting food all over myself as it is) to be any kind of a portable food item. The shell for the Walk-A-Taco was actually more like a fried taco bowl from a taco salad remade into a cone form. It's marginally more sturdy, yes, but the taste wasn't really right, and it felt vaguely greasy. I had actually guessed it would be in more of a flatbread-type wrapper, like a Taco Bell chalupa, and I still think that would be a better choice, but then I guess it would be more like a gyro-with-taco-filling rather than a Walk-A-Taco.
2. The Filling
As you can probably tell from the picture above, the Walk-A-Taco has a lot of lettuce in it. This wasn't just the case at the top; the proportion of meat to lettuce that you can see is about what it was throughout. The dressing was also more appropriate for a salad than for a taco, more of a southwestern vinaigrette (or maybe it was more or a ranch) than anything taco sauce/salsa-like. The meat was in larger bite-size chunks rather than in ground taco meat form, which I suppose has both good and bad points. There was some chopped tomato and shredded cheese in there as well, but overall, yeah, a lot of lettuce. The jalapenos, sour cream and cilantro featured prominently in the product shown in that CBS story? Non-existent, as far as I can recall.
3. Portability
See the fork there in the picture I included? You're going to need that. This is the case because, as I explained above, what you're really eating is a salad and not a taco, and even if the cone itself were perfectly conducive to walking and eating (and it's not), you'd still want to eat it with a fork. Because of this, my friend and I wound up walking a few sections until we found a ledge where we could put down our beers so we could eat with the provided forks. And you know how, when you're eating an ice cream cone, sometimes the bottom will crack (or just be leaky to start with) and the melty ice cream at the bottom will drop on your shirt? Yeah, that happens with a Walk-A-Taco too, except instead of ice cream it's salad dressing. (A cure for that problem: Dippin' Dots! ICE CREAM OF THE FUTURE!)
(I should add that the line at the stand selling the Walk-A-Taco was one of the longest anywhere in the stadium. However, I think that's because it was a new food item being sold on opening day and lots of people wanted to try it; I would imagine that the lines will die down eventually, so I didn't think this was worth calling a major issue.)
None of this is to say that the Walk-A-Taco is a bad food item, of course. If you're at Target Field and you want something with vegetables, this might actually be your best choice; probably not even all that bad for you if you don't eat the cone itself. But if I find myself back there, I think I'm going to stick to what they're best at: meat in tube form.
Well, that isn't really true; the biggest flaw with Target Field's new Walk-A-Taco (CBS Minnesota news item) is also the reason why this post's title is misleading. The Walk-A-Taco is not, in fact, a taco in a cone. Rather, it's a taco salad in a cone. Now, that isn't the worst thing in the world; the taco salad is a pretty good food item. But what it's not is a taco, which is a better food item. Here's a picture of a taco cone, as it was sold to me at the Twins' home opener on Friday, April 8, 2011:
I guess I had three main gripes with the Walk-A-Taco:
1. The Cone
Now, obviously you can't just take a regular hard taco shell, remake it into the shape of a cone, and call it a day. It'd be far too fragile (I can barely eat a hard taco without getting food all over myself as it is) to be any kind of a portable food item. The shell for the Walk-A-Taco was actually more like a fried taco bowl from a taco salad remade into a cone form. It's marginally more sturdy, yes, but the taste wasn't really right, and it felt vaguely greasy. I had actually guessed it would be in more of a flatbread-type wrapper, like a Taco Bell chalupa, and I still think that would be a better choice, but then I guess it would be more like a gyro-with-taco-filling rather than a Walk-A-Taco.
2. The Filling
As you can probably tell from the picture above, the Walk-A-Taco has a lot of lettuce in it. This wasn't just the case at the top; the proportion of meat to lettuce that you can see is about what it was throughout. The dressing was also more appropriate for a salad than for a taco, more of a southwestern vinaigrette (or maybe it was more or a ranch) than anything taco sauce/salsa-like. The meat was in larger bite-size chunks rather than in ground taco meat form, which I suppose has both good and bad points. There was some chopped tomato and shredded cheese in there as well, but overall, yeah, a lot of lettuce. The jalapenos, sour cream and cilantro featured prominently in the product shown in that CBS story? Non-existent, as far as I can recall.
3. Portability
See the fork there in the picture I included? You're going to need that. This is the case because, as I explained above, what you're really eating is a salad and not a taco, and even if the cone itself were perfectly conducive to walking and eating (and it's not), you'd still want to eat it with a fork. Because of this, my friend and I wound up walking a few sections until we found a ledge where we could put down our beers so we could eat with the provided forks. And you know how, when you're eating an ice cream cone, sometimes the bottom will crack (or just be leaky to start with) and the melty ice cream at the bottom will drop on your shirt? Yeah, that happens with a Walk-A-Taco too, except instead of ice cream it's salad dressing. (A cure for that problem: Dippin' Dots! ICE CREAM OF THE FUTURE!)
(I should add that the line at the stand selling the Walk-A-Taco was one of the longest anywhere in the stadium. However, I think that's because it was a new food item being sold on opening day and lots of people wanted to try it; I would imagine that the lines will die down eventually, so I didn't think this was worth calling a major issue.)
None of this is to say that the Walk-A-Taco is a bad food item, of course. If you're at Target Field and you want something with vegetables, this might actually be your best choice; probably not even all that bad for you if you don't eat the cone itself. But if I find myself back there, I think I'm going to stick to what they're best at: meat in tube form.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Hecho En Dumbo
Wow, it has been a while since I last wrote! Time to remedy that...
Last night, before a show at the Mercury Lounge, a friend and I went to Hecho en Dumbo, on the Bowery between 4th and Great Jones. The name, if you haven't heard of the place before, is a reference to the fact that the restaurant was originally located in DUMBO, but relocated across the river about a year ago.
As far as the atmosphere goes, the noise level was buzzy (it was pretty crowded the whole time we were there, on a Thursday evening) but not really what I'd call loud. It was very warm inside, even on a cold winter night, so you might want to be prepared for that; also, there's only one bathroom (which is huge, and I don't know why they don't subdivide it). We waited a little while for our table, as you might expect at a crowded restaurant, but once we were seated everything came out fairly quickly. Service was friendly, although perhaps not the most attentive.
Everything we ate was very tasty. The portions weren't huge, though also not as small as some of the Yelp reviews would lead you to believe. I guess the thing is, if you go into your meal expecting it to be like Chipotle, where you get a huge burrito for $8 and that's your meal, or like a traditional taqueria where you get a couple of $2 tacos and you're done, you're not going to be happy with your price/volume-of-food ratio. If you think of it as going to a Manhattan restaurant that happens to be serving Mexican food rather than Italian or Japanese or whatever else, you'll be fine with it. My friend and I were stuffed for $48 each (including tax, tip, and one drink each), and we're both hearty eaters.
We started with an order of guacamole, prepared fresh and a bit creamier in texture than I generally expect. Queso Fundido Huitlacoche (with mushrooms) was delicious, though I'm not sure how much credit I can give since melted cheese is, by rule, always awesome. Next we had an order of mixed seafood tacos (called "tacos el alcalde", though I'm not sure what the mayor has to do with them), which were an interesting blend of smoked sable, shrimp and braised octopus. If I were I more pretentious writer, I'd say that the smoked fish pays tribute to the Lower East Side's Jewish heritage, but I'm not. At about the same time we also received our burritas (basically just a burrito cut into three pieces), with wine-braised steak, black beans and caramelized onions. The meat was very tender and I would definitely order these again. (Actually, everything I've mentioned I would order again.) Last, we had Carnitas Campechanas, a variety of cuts of pork (shoulder, belly, cheek, ear), served with small tortillas and a spicy green (tomatillo and avocado, according to the website) sauce. One of the more expensive things on the menu, but also a nicely sized pile of delicious pork. (I'm not a good Jew.) It was reminiscent of Cuban roast pork I sometimes get for lunch at Sophie's, except way better.
As a final note on price, the tacos were $11 for three fairly small tacos, which seems a bit steep, even for seafood. On the other hand, the burritas, for $9, could probably be a meal on their own for daintier eaters, since if you put the three pieces together you'd basically have a medium-sized (not Chipotle-sized, but reasonable) burrito. The guacamole ($7) and queso fundido ($9) were right in line with what you'd expect to pay for a sharing-oriented appetizer anywhere else in Manhattan. The carnitas, as I mentioned, were one of the most expensive things on the menu ($21), but they were also a big pile of pork that defeated me and my friend.
One last thing: I'm coming to the conclusion that I just don't like micheladas, so I don't think the fact that I didn't like theirs is significant. Should've had a regular beer or a drink with tequila instead.
Last night, before a show at the Mercury Lounge, a friend and I went to Hecho en Dumbo, on the Bowery between 4th and Great Jones. The name, if you haven't heard of the place before, is a reference to the fact that the restaurant was originally located in DUMBO, but relocated across the river about a year ago.
As far as the atmosphere goes, the noise level was buzzy (it was pretty crowded the whole time we were there, on a Thursday evening) but not really what I'd call loud. It was very warm inside, even on a cold winter night, so you might want to be prepared for that; also, there's only one bathroom (which is huge, and I don't know why they don't subdivide it). We waited a little while for our table, as you might expect at a crowded restaurant, but once we were seated everything came out fairly quickly. Service was friendly, although perhaps not the most attentive.
Everything we ate was very tasty. The portions weren't huge, though also not as small as some of the Yelp reviews would lead you to believe. I guess the thing is, if you go into your meal expecting it to be like Chipotle, where you get a huge burrito for $8 and that's your meal, or like a traditional taqueria where you get a couple of $2 tacos and you're done, you're not going to be happy with your price/volume-of-food ratio. If you think of it as going to a Manhattan restaurant that happens to be serving Mexican food rather than Italian or Japanese or whatever else, you'll be fine with it. My friend and I were stuffed for $48 each (including tax, tip, and one drink each), and we're both hearty eaters.
We started with an order of guacamole, prepared fresh and a bit creamier in texture than I generally expect. Queso Fundido Huitlacoche (with mushrooms) was delicious, though I'm not sure how much credit I can give since melted cheese is, by rule, always awesome. Next we had an order of mixed seafood tacos (called "tacos el alcalde", though I'm not sure what the mayor has to do with them), which were an interesting blend of smoked sable, shrimp and braised octopus. If I were I more pretentious writer, I'd say that the smoked fish pays tribute to the Lower East Side's Jewish heritage, but I'm not. At about the same time we also received our burritas (basically just a burrito cut into three pieces), with wine-braised steak, black beans and caramelized onions. The meat was very tender and I would definitely order these again. (Actually, everything I've mentioned I would order again.) Last, we had Carnitas Campechanas, a variety of cuts of pork (shoulder, belly, cheek, ear), served with small tortillas and a spicy green (tomatillo and avocado, according to the website) sauce. One of the more expensive things on the menu, but also a nicely sized pile of delicious pork. (I'm not a good Jew.) It was reminiscent of Cuban roast pork I sometimes get for lunch at Sophie's, except way better.
As a final note on price, the tacos were $11 for three fairly small tacos, which seems a bit steep, even for seafood. On the other hand, the burritas, for $9, could probably be a meal on their own for daintier eaters, since if you put the three pieces together you'd basically have a medium-sized (not Chipotle-sized, but reasonable) burrito. The guacamole ($7) and queso fundido ($9) were right in line with what you'd expect to pay for a sharing-oriented appetizer anywhere else in Manhattan. The carnitas, as I mentioned, were one of the most expensive things on the menu ($21), but they were also a big pile of pork that defeated me and my friend.
One last thing: I'm coming to the conclusion that I just don't like micheladas, so I don't think the fact that I didn't like theirs is significant. Should've had a regular beer or a drink with tequila instead.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Definitely Soup
So I decided that the stock, or maybe soup, or maybe stock, or maybe soup, that I was working on should be soup after all. Figured that after going out and buying stew beef, I may as well turn this directly into something I could eat. Grabbed another couple of carrots and another couple of sticks of celery out of the fridge, cut them up and added them to the pot. Went to the grocery store and picked up a couple of small potatoes and a shallot; peeled them, cut them up, threw them in with the rest, left it all to simmer for another couple of hours. Voila: soup!
And let me tell you... it was great! Here's what it looked like in the pot, after I'd eaten about half of it:
And in a bowl, ready to go:
I don't know that there's another expensive steak dinner in my near future, so I won't have steak bones to start with again, but I think I may try the same thing with just stew beef sometime. Maybe I'll buy some marrow bones too, because mmmmm marrow.
And let me tell you... it was great! Here's what it looked like in the pot, after I'd eaten about half of it:
And in a bowl, ready to go:
I don't know that there's another expensive steak dinner in my near future, so I won't have steak bones to start with again, but I think I may try the same thing with just stew beef sometime. Maybe I'll buy some marrow bones too, because mmmmm marrow.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Adventures In... Stock? Soup? TBD...
About a week and a half ago, my cousin Mike and I went to Wolfgang's in Tribeca and had some steaks. (Well, had a steak, since Wolfgang's does "steak for N" in the same style as Peter Luger.) When we got done eating, there was this lovely t-bone with a fair amount of meat still on it, and it seemed like it would be a shame to just let it get thrown away, so I took it home planning to make beef stock out of it. (I had done the same thing a couple of years ago with a couple of Peter Luger steak bones, and figured maybe I could manage the same thing now.)
So I started the bone boiling in water, added a couple of carrots and a couple of stalks of celery and an onion, figuring that those were about the basic ingredients of beef stock. And salt and pepper, because everything needs salt and pepper. After about four hours of simmering the first night, I realized that the taste was very watery, and that I had to add more beef. So I went to Trader Joe's and bought a pound of stew meat, browned that in a hot pan and then put it into the pot with the rest. At this point it occurred to me that maybe instead of stock I could make beef vegetable soup, so... now I'm trying to decide whether to do that. I guess we'll see what I decide! Stay tuned...
So I started the bone boiling in water, added a couple of carrots and a couple of stalks of celery and an onion, figuring that those were about the basic ingredients of beef stock. And salt and pepper, because everything needs salt and pepper. After about four hours of simmering the first night, I realized that the taste was very watery, and that I had to add more beef. So I went to Trader Joe's and bought a pound of stew meat, browned that in a hot pan and then put it into the pot with the rest. At this point it occurred to me that maybe instead of stock I could make beef vegetable soup, so... now I'm trying to decide whether to do that. I guess we'll see what I decide! Stay tuned...
Josh's New York
I think maybe I was the only one who watched the TV show Keen Eddie, which aired briefly on Fox in the summer of 2003. Keen Eddie was a fish-out-of-water cop show about titular New York policeman Eddie Arlette (played by Mark Valley, currently starring in the TV comic book adaptation Human Target), who has been assigned to work for a police precinct in London. The show also starred Julian Rhind-Tutt (perhaps best known as Angelina Jolie's sidekick in the first Tomb Raider movie) as Eddie's uptight English partner, Colin Salmon (of, among other things, three of the Pierce Brosnan-era Bond movies) as their no-nonsense superintendent, and Sienna Miller as Eddie's will-they-or-won't-they landlady.
One of the show's plot devices was this: In the pilot, which told the story of how Eddie bungled a case and was sent to London to clean up his mess, we see a few scenes in Eddie's apartment. On his wall, we see a map of New York (referred to, and maybe also labeled, "Eddie's New York"), with matchbooks from various establishments tacked up at (presumably) their locations in the city. During the pilot, there's a fire in the apartment, and the matchbooks and lots of other things burn to ashes, perhaps symbolizing the destruction of Eddie's career in New York. Once he's posted to London, he starts a new map, adding a new matchbook each episode corresponding to an establishment that was related to the episode's plot. (This was a plot device, at least, for the five or six episodes that aired before Fox pulled the plug. I haven't yet bought the DVDs to see whether they kept it up for the whole season, but I assume so.)
Well, I thought, that looked really cool, and I decided to emulate it. I picked up a wall-sized map of Manhattan (where I lived at the time, since supplemented by a Brooklyn map), tacked it up on my wall, and started taking matchbooks at restaurants and adding them to the map. (Over the past few years, due to the much-appreciated smoking ban, some restaurants have offered cards rather than matchbooks, but those work just as well, although they're sometimes larger.) Here's what the map looks like this evening, November 2, 2010, as I'm writing this:
Writing out a full list would be a tedious process and would just result in boring you, so I'll just include some of the highlights:
Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, from the Harlem location of the Upstate NY institution:
Vintage New York Wine Bar (which sadly closed a couple of years ago), a wine bar/restaurant focusing on New York State-produced wines; they stood out by offering, instead of matchbooks or cards, a cork imprinted with their business information:
Delhi Brasserie, an Indian restaurant in Southwest London that I visited during my first trip over there back in the summer of 2006, shown at the eastern edge of Long Island because if I were to locate it precisely to scale it'd probably have to be two buildings over:
Florent, a Meatpacking District institution since the mid-'80s that closed a couple of years ago after being priced out by the blandification of the neighborhood:
I'll add new entries here for new matchbooks as I add them to the map, and perhaps also add pictures for some older ones if I'm stuck for things to write about here.
One of the show's plot devices was this: In the pilot, which told the story of how Eddie bungled a case and was sent to London to clean up his mess, we see a few scenes in Eddie's apartment. On his wall, we see a map of New York (referred to, and maybe also labeled, "Eddie's New York"), with matchbooks from various establishments tacked up at (presumably) their locations in the city. During the pilot, there's a fire in the apartment, and the matchbooks and lots of other things burn to ashes, perhaps symbolizing the destruction of Eddie's career in New York. Once he's posted to London, he starts a new map, adding a new matchbook each episode corresponding to an establishment that was related to the episode's plot. (This was a plot device, at least, for the five or six episodes that aired before Fox pulled the plug. I haven't yet bought the DVDs to see whether they kept it up for the whole season, but I assume so.)
Well, I thought, that looked really cool, and I decided to emulate it. I picked up a wall-sized map of Manhattan (where I lived at the time, since supplemented by a Brooklyn map), tacked it up on my wall, and started taking matchbooks at restaurants and adding them to the map. (Over the past few years, due to the much-appreciated smoking ban, some restaurants have offered cards rather than matchbooks, but those work just as well, although they're sometimes larger.) Here's what the map looks like this evening, November 2, 2010, as I'm writing this:
Writing out a full list would be a tedious process and would just result in boring you, so I'll just include some of the highlights:
Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, from the Harlem location of the Upstate NY institution:
Vintage New York Wine Bar (which sadly closed a couple of years ago), a wine bar/restaurant focusing on New York State-produced wines; they stood out by offering, instead of matchbooks or cards, a cork imprinted with their business information:
Delhi Brasserie, an Indian restaurant in Southwest London that I visited during my first trip over there back in the summer of 2006, shown at the eastern edge of Long Island because if I were to locate it precisely to scale it'd probably have to be two buildings over:
Florent, a Meatpacking District institution since the mid-'80s that closed a couple of years ago after being priced out by the blandification of the neighborhood:
I'll add new entries here for new matchbooks as I add them to the map, and perhaps also add pictures for some older ones if I'm stuck for things to write about here.
Dish Soaking Fail
I'm not sure how this happened, but... this happened:
And not through any action of my own, to be clear, but somehow a soup spoon and my vegetable peeler... attempted to mate? While they were soaking in a bowl in my sink? I don't really know. What I do know is that my attempts to separate them resulted in this:
And now I need to buy a new vegetable peeler.
And not through any action of my own, to be clear, but somehow a soup spoon and my vegetable peeler... attempted to mate? While they were soaking in a bowl in my sink? I don't really know. What I do know is that my attempts to separate them resulted in this:
And now I need to buy a new vegetable peeler.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
I Wrote A Thing About Soccer
and if you are interested in that sort of thing, you should go read it. It's posted over at Craven Cottage Newsround, which is an excellent blog for fans of Fulham Football Club.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Wait... What?
So when I finally got around to firing up the Philly cheesesteak episode of Food Wars that aired a couple of weeks ago, I discovered that it pitted Pat's against... Tony Luke's? How on earth do you do an episode about cheesesteak and not have it be Pat's vs. Geno's? I mean, those are pretty clearly the two most famous places (if you Google "philly cheesesteak" you get the Wikipedia article, Pat's, and Geno's, in that order, as your top three hits), not to mention the fact that they're right across the street from each other would make for good TV. I almost didn't want to watch the episode because this seems so wrong, but I had to see whether Geno's even got mentioned - they didn't, and the shots of Pat's were framed so as not to show it either. I can only assume there must've been a contract dispute or something.
By the way, they changed the format (no longer a blind taste test, the owners of the two places come out and talk to the judges while they're eating; the host is now one of the judges and they structured it so that she cast the deciding vote, rather than a local, which was also odd), and the winner was Pat's, but that almost seems secondary to the strange choice of contestants.
(I should add that this has also been discussed on the show's official discussion forum, where multiple astute viewers also noted that Joey Vento of Geno's was in the show's introduction prior to the changes mentioned above.)
By the way, they changed the format (no longer a blind taste test, the owners of the two places come out and talk to the judges while they're eating; the host is now one of the judges and they structured it so that she cast the deciding vote, rather than a local, which was also odd), and the winner was Pat's, but that almost seems secondary to the strange choice of contestants.
(I should add that this has also been discussed on the show's official discussion forum, where multiple astute viewers also noted that Joey Vento of Geno's was in the show's introduction prior to the changes mentioned above.)
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Chicken and Rice Follow-Up
You may recall that back in the spring I wrote about a trip to get food at 53rd Street and 6th Avenue, New York's most famous corner for chicken and rice. Because my friend and I didn't want to wait too long, we ordered food from the cart on the southeast corner of the intersection that is, I was informed, functionally identical to the more well-known cart on the southwest corner of the intersection that gets ridiculously long lines. You may also recall that I wasn't particularly impressed by the food we ate, and resolved to return and try the food at the more well-known cart at some point when the line wasn't so long.
As luck would have it, I had an opportunity to do so last night. I spent the better part of the evening on the roof deck at Ava Lounge on 55th (good drinks, gorgeous view, prices to match) celebrating a friend's birthday, without having had dinner beforehand, and afterward found myself right near the chicken and rice carts and needing food. And, even better, the famous cart was just setting up for business for the night and there wasn't any line at all. Ordered my chicken and rice, paid my $6, took my white sauce and my hot sauce, and sat down on a bench nearby to dig in while it was fresh.
And... meh. The food was the same as last time, and I still don't see the appeal. Granted, there's a lot of food for $6 and I always approve of a good value, and the hot sauce was just as hot as I remembered. But honestly, the chicken was bland, as was the rice. I couldn't say for sure since I don't spend a whole lot of time in Midtown, but I'd be inclined to guess that there's better food to be had at other carts right there in the immediate area; the food at the good ole Frito-Lay truck (since re-named "Gyro House", despite the fact that it does not reside in anything resembling a house) is certainly better. Don't get me wrong, it's not bad or anything, and if someone handed me a free chicken and rice platter I wouldn't turn it down, but I'm certainly not going to spend an hour waiting for it anytime soon.
As luck would have it, I had an opportunity to do so last night. I spent the better part of the evening on the roof deck at Ava Lounge on 55th (good drinks, gorgeous view, prices to match) celebrating a friend's birthday, without having had dinner beforehand, and afterward found myself right near the chicken and rice carts and needing food. And, even better, the famous cart was just setting up for business for the night and there wasn't any line at all. Ordered my chicken and rice, paid my $6, took my white sauce and my hot sauce, and sat down on a bench nearby to dig in while it was fresh.
And... meh. The food was the same as last time, and I still don't see the appeal. Granted, there's a lot of food for $6 and I always approve of a good value, and the hot sauce was just as hot as I remembered. But honestly, the chicken was bland, as was the rice. I couldn't say for sure since I don't spend a whole lot of time in Midtown, but I'd be inclined to guess that there's better food to be had at other carts right there in the immediate area; the food at the good ole Frito-Lay truck (since re-named "Gyro House", despite the fact that it does not reside in anything resembling a house) is certainly better. Don't get me wrong, it's not bad or anything, and if someone handed me a free chicken and rice platter I wouldn't turn it down, but I'm certainly not going to spend an hour waiting for it anytime soon.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Ode To My Produce Store
I love the place in my neighborhood where I buy fruits and veggies. Atlantic Fruit & Veg. (for some reason named on Yelp as "Atlantic Vegetable and Food") is just up around the corner from me on Atlantic Avenue between Court and Clinton Streets, and it's awesome. They have a very good selection, the produce is always fresh, the cashiers are friendly, and it's cheap! Tonight, on the way home from work, I bought:
1/4 of a watermelon
4 nice tomatoes on the vine
4 peaches
3 Gala apples
1 D'Anjou pear
2 ginormous cucumbers
1 head of romaine lettuce
1 bag of carrots
1 pint of blueberries
Total cost? $16.71.
I love my produce store.
1/4 of a watermelon
4 nice tomatoes on the vine
4 peaches
3 Gala apples
1 D'Anjou pear
2 ginormous cucumbers
1 head of romaine lettuce
1 bag of carrots
1 pint of blueberries
Total cost? $16.71.
I love my produce store.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Plate Of Meat
Last Thursday night, I made my first trip to Red Bull Arena, the recently-opened soccer-specific stadium that's home to the New York Red Bulls of Major League Soccer. The move from Giants Stadium to the team's new home represents a positive step for the historically unsuccessful MetroStars/Red Bulls franchise not just because of the sport/team-appropriate aspects of the stadium itself (e.g., natural grass playing surface, standard-width soccer field, no football lines painted on the surface, seating capacity appropriate for the sport, etc.), but also because the relocation from East Rutherford to Harrison puts the team's home a stone's throw from Newark and Kearny and Belleville, home to large groups of Americans of Portuguese, Spanish, Brazilian, Uruguayan, Italian and Irish descent that helped make North Jersey into one of the historical hotbeds of American soccer. (Tab Ramos, Tony Meola, Claudio Reyna and John Harkes, bold-faced names in the history of soccer in the United States, all grew up in the immediate area.)
In particular, the new stadium is a short walk across the Jackson Street Bridge away from the Ironbound neighborhood of Newark, historically a landing place for thousands of Portuguese, Brazilian and Spanish immigrants. This means that spectators will find themselves within walking distance of a large number of ethnic restaurants in the Ironbound for pregame and/or postgame eating and/or drinking, in contrast with the utter lack of options in the immediate vicinity of the Meadowlands. (It should be noted that, though a major renovation is in the works, the Harrison PATH station is presently woefully unequipped to handle postgame crowds, making a postgame walk over to Newark an even more attractive option.) In addition to the variety of options available in Newark, Red Bull Arena itself pays tribute to the area's ethnic heritage in the assortment of food available at concession stands.
Because it was a weeknight, my friends and I didn't have time for a sit-down dinner at a restaurant before the game, but rather planned for a meal at one particular stadium concession: the Casa Seabra Rodizio Grill, a rodizio-inspired concession stand immediately outside one of the main entrances to the stadium and owned by a family that operates a number of restaurants in the Ironbound, including the similarly-named Casa Seabra.
That's the stadium at the left-hand side of the frame, to give you an idea of how close it is to the grill. As you can perhaps see from the menu shown in the picture, there are a number of sandwiches on offer for $6.50 each (linguiça sausage, pork steak, sirloin) as well as pao de chouriço (bread stuffed with sausage) for $4, but we each opted for the $10 rodizio platter including sirloin, linguiça sausage and chicken breast, along with rice and beans:
For $10 (i.e., barely more than you'd pay for a hot dog at one of the baseball stadiums in the city), this was a phenomenal value. The chunks of grilled chicken were a little dry, but that's a tough one to avoid when cooking large amounts of chicken. The sausage and (especially) steak were tasty, especially when eaten with some of the chimichurri sauce that was included with the platter. The beans were flavorful as well, and the rice was... well, it was rice. (In the picture, it's shown sprinkled with some Tabasco sauce, which we actually all agreed seemed hotter than normal Tabasco; I know Tabasco produces an extra-spicy hot sauce made from habanero peppers, but this was not labeled as such.) I'd heartily endorse Casa Seabra Rodizio Grill if you're making a trip out to the new stadium (unless you're a vegetarian, in which case you'll find little of interest there; I believe there are more options to you, like empanadas, inside the stadium); the only down sides are that the only utensil provided is a fork (a knife might be useful to cut the steak, and a spoon to scoop the beans), and the unnecessarily blaring music and hype-man trying to get the crowd fired up right nearby.
In particular, the new stadium is a short walk across the Jackson Street Bridge away from the Ironbound neighborhood of Newark, historically a landing place for thousands of Portuguese, Brazilian and Spanish immigrants. This means that spectators will find themselves within walking distance of a large number of ethnic restaurants in the Ironbound for pregame and/or postgame eating and/or drinking, in contrast with the utter lack of options in the immediate vicinity of the Meadowlands. (It should be noted that, though a major renovation is in the works, the Harrison PATH station is presently woefully unequipped to handle postgame crowds, making a postgame walk over to Newark an even more attractive option.) In addition to the variety of options available in Newark, Red Bull Arena itself pays tribute to the area's ethnic heritage in the assortment of food available at concession stands.
Because it was a weeknight, my friends and I didn't have time for a sit-down dinner at a restaurant before the game, but rather planned for a meal at one particular stadium concession: the Casa Seabra Rodizio Grill, a rodizio-inspired concession stand immediately outside one of the main entrances to the stadium and owned by a family that operates a number of restaurants in the Ironbound, including the similarly-named Casa Seabra.
That's the stadium at the left-hand side of the frame, to give you an idea of how close it is to the grill. As you can perhaps see from the menu shown in the picture, there are a number of sandwiches on offer for $6.50 each (linguiça sausage, pork steak, sirloin) as well as pao de chouriço (bread stuffed with sausage) for $4, but we each opted for the $10 rodizio platter including sirloin, linguiça sausage and chicken breast, along with rice and beans:
For $10 (i.e., barely more than you'd pay for a hot dog at one of the baseball stadiums in the city), this was a phenomenal value. The chunks of grilled chicken were a little dry, but that's a tough one to avoid when cooking large amounts of chicken. The sausage and (especially) steak were tasty, especially when eaten with some of the chimichurri sauce that was included with the platter. The beans were flavorful as well, and the rice was... well, it was rice. (In the picture, it's shown sprinkled with some Tabasco sauce, which we actually all agreed seemed hotter than normal Tabasco; I know Tabasco produces an extra-spicy hot sauce made from habanero peppers, but this was not labeled as such.) I'd heartily endorse Casa Seabra Rodizio Grill if you're making a trip out to the new stadium (unless you're a vegetarian, in which case you'll find little of interest there; I believe there are more options to you, like empanadas, inside the stadium); the only down sides are that the only utensil provided is a fork (a knife might be useful to cut the steak, and a spoon to scoop the beans), and the unnecessarily blaring music and hype-man trying to get the crowd fired up right nearby.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Behold the Power of Trends, and a LONG Tangent
This post was supposed to include some nice pictures of last Friday's dinner. (OK, it still could, for reasons I'll discuss below, but bear with me for the moment.) On Friday evening, after work, I met up with my sister Lauren and my brother-in-law Brian to have dinner at The Meatball Shop, a fairly new (opened in February) and significantly buzzed-about Lower East Side restaurant specializing in (no points for guessing this one) meatballs. The menu includes five different kinds of meatballs (beef, pork, chicken, veggie, and a weekly special), and you can order any one of the types in a variety of ways including a variety of different types of sandwiches or a la carte, as well as various sides and beverages and all that.
So, of course, meatballs are delicious, and we decided we wanted to give it a try. The reviews mentioned that there could be a long wait for a table, but we figured that we could always put our name down, leave a phone number, and then go get a drink at a bar nearby. But when we arrived, we were told that the wait would be a whopping two hours! OK, really, come on. I'm sure these meatballs are very good, but are they really that much better than what you get on a meatball sub at your local pizza place (my coworkers and I sometimes go to Liberatos Pizza in the Financial District) that that kind of a wait is justified? I mean, I'm not averse to waiting a reasonable amount of time for food. 45 minutes in the park waiting for my burger from Shake Shack? No big deal. Line outside Tomoe Sushi? I haven't been there yet, but everyone says it's worth the wait. But two hours for meatballs? Well, we didn't think they could possibly be worth the wait, and decided to head somewhere else.
After a bit of wandering, we wound up at a cute little place called The Pink Pony and decided to give it a try. (It didn't hurt that they had a sign saying "we have air conditioning!" and it was really hot outside.) Lauren ordered a nicoise salad, Brian ordered short ribs, which both looked very good. (Brian loves short ribs, so there wasn't much doubt that he'd be happy, and the tuna in Lauren's salad was nicely seared.)
I ordered cassoulet, which I'd never eaten before, but had been meaning to try for a while because: So after I took the bar exam back in the summer of 2006, I took a vacation to Europe for a few weeks. One travel day, when I was taking a TGV train from Bordeaux to Barcelona (or, technically, to Narbonne to transfer to a different train to Barcelona), I got, well, stranded. The train just stopped working with no explanation. (Well, there might have been some explanation, but not an explanation that I was going to be able to pick up on with my "Ou est la toilette?"-level understanding of French.) At first we were just stopped basically in a field, but after being held there for something like an hour we pulled forward at a slow speed until we arrived at the nearest station, in a small town named Castelnaudary. There we sat for... a few hours, as I recall. I still didn't really know what was going on, only that it was starting to look more and more like I was going to miss my connection. They were letting people off the train, though, so I got up to stretch my legs and eventually found out, from an English-speaking conductor (SNCF conductors wear little national flag pins representing various languages they speak, which I thought was clever), that there was some sort of electrical problem, that they didn't know how long it would be, but that they would make sure that everyone did get where they were going if we missed connections. (I later learned that all the electricity in southwestern France was not working that afternoon; I'm not sure whether that meant just for SNCF, or for everyone in the whole region.) I managed to call my hotel in Barcelona to let them know that I would be arriving late that night (the Spanish that I had learned in high school and college was, and still is, rusty but at least somewhat functional), and then settled in to wait. I couldn't really go anywhere, though, because there was no telling when the train would be ready to leave, and in any case I couldn't really communicate with anyone to figure out where I'd go even if I could go somewhere. The train eventually left Castelnaudary a few hours later and arrived in Narbonne close to midnight, something like five or six hours after I was supposed to make my transfer. SNCF, true to their word, put me and a bunch of other Barcelona-bound travelers onto a bus that eventually arrived at around 3 in the morning, and someone at my hotel (formerly Hostal Palacios, now Hotel Praktik Rambla, highly recommended) was there to let me in even at that late hour.
Aaaaaanyway, if you'll forgive the rambling (though this is all actually part of a much longer story that I'm certainly not going to go to the effort to type), the connection is: after I got home at the end of my trip, I decided to read up on Castelnaudary, where I had been stranded for a couple of hours. It turned out that what seemed to me to be a crappy little town in the middle of nowhere (to be fair, not many places look particularly nice if all you see is the train station) was actually a lovely town along the Canal du Midi that bills itself as the "World Capital of Cassoulet." Had I known this at the time, I would've certainly tried to find a place to eat cassoulet rather than whatever crap I found in a vending machine at the train station, but since I didn't, I've been meaning to try it for a while, and now here we are back at where we started.
So, cassoulet. Tasty. Beany. Should've taken pictures, like I mentioned above. I think I'm going to need to try it elsewhere for comparison.
The end? Perhaps, though I do still want to go try those meatballs some night when the line isn't so long.
So, of course, meatballs are delicious, and we decided we wanted to give it a try. The reviews mentioned that there could be a long wait for a table, but we figured that we could always put our name down, leave a phone number, and then go get a drink at a bar nearby. But when we arrived, we were told that the wait would be a whopping two hours! OK, really, come on. I'm sure these meatballs are very good, but are they really that much better than what you get on a meatball sub at your local pizza place (my coworkers and I sometimes go to Liberatos Pizza in the Financial District) that that kind of a wait is justified? I mean, I'm not averse to waiting a reasonable amount of time for food. 45 minutes in the park waiting for my burger from Shake Shack? No big deal. Line outside Tomoe Sushi? I haven't been there yet, but everyone says it's worth the wait. But two hours for meatballs? Well, we didn't think they could possibly be worth the wait, and decided to head somewhere else.
After a bit of wandering, we wound up at a cute little place called The Pink Pony and decided to give it a try. (It didn't hurt that they had a sign saying "we have air conditioning!" and it was really hot outside.) Lauren ordered a nicoise salad, Brian ordered short ribs, which both looked very good. (Brian loves short ribs, so there wasn't much doubt that he'd be happy, and the tuna in Lauren's salad was nicely seared.)
I ordered cassoulet, which I'd never eaten before, but had been meaning to try for a while because: So after I took the bar exam back in the summer of 2006, I took a vacation to Europe for a few weeks. One travel day, when I was taking a TGV train from Bordeaux to Barcelona (or, technically, to Narbonne to transfer to a different train to Barcelona), I got, well, stranded. The train just stopped working with no explanation. (Well, there might have been some explanation, but not an explanation that I was going to be able to pick up on with my "Ou est la toilette?"-level understanding of French.) At first we were just stopped basically in a field, but after being held there for something like an hour we pulled forward at a slow speed until we arrived at the nearest station, in a small town named Castelnaudary. There we sat for... a few hours, as I recall. I still didn't really know what was going on, only that it was starting to look more and more like I was going to miss my connection. They were letting people off the train, though, so I got up to stretch my legs and eventually found out, from an English-speaking conductor (SNCF conductors wear little national flag pins representing various languages they speak, which I thought was clever), that there was some sort of electrical problem, that they didn't know how long it would be, but that they would make sure that everyone did get where they were going if we missed connections. (I later learned that all the electricity in southwestern France was not working that afternoon; I'm not sure whether that meant just for SNCF, or for everyone in the whole region.) I managed to call my hotel in Barcelona to let them know that I would be arriving late that night (the Spanish that I had learned in high school and college was, and still is, rusty but at least somewhat functional), and then settled in to wait. I couldn't really go anywhere, though, because there was no telling when the train would be ready to leave, and in any case I couldn't really communicate with anyone to figure out where I'd go even if I could go somewhere. The train eventually left Castelnaudary a few hours later and arrived in Narbonne close to midnight, something like five or six hours after I was supposed to make my transfer. SNCF, true to their word, put me and a bunch of other Barcelona-bound travelers onto a bus that eventually arrived at around 3 in the morning, and someone at my hotel (formerly Hostal Palacios, now Hotel Praktik Rambla, highly recommended) was there to let me in even at that late hour.
Aaaaaanyway, if you'll forgive the rambling (though this is all actually part of a much longer story that I'm certainly not going to go to the effort to type), the connection is: after I got home at the end of my trip, I decided to read up on Castelnaudary, where I had been stranded for a couple of hours. It turned out that what seemed to me to be a crappy little town in the middle of nowhere (to be fair, not many places look particularly nice if all you see is the train station) was actually a lovely town along the Canal du Midi that bills itself as the "World Capital of Cassoulet." Had I known this at the time, I would've certainly tried to find a place to eat cassoulet rather than whatever crap I found in a vending machine at the train station, but since I didn't, I've been meaning to try it for a while, and now here we are back at where we started.
So, cassoulet. Tasty. Beany. Should've taken pictures, like I mentioned above. I think I'm going to need to try it elsewhere for comparison.
The end? Perhaps, though I do still want to go try those meatballs some night when the line isn't so long.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Well Hello There
Sorry for the lack of posts lately; I'm sure there will be more forthcoming soon, if I can just remember to take pictures and actually write about things. One thing that can definitely be filed under "coming soon" is the garden out back by the verandah (read: planter on my fire escape).
In the meantime, the always-excellent Ted Berg of SNY takes some time out from his normal sportswriting to bring us Sandwich Week. It's not my own material, obviously (save for a few comments to Ted's posts), but worth a read nonetheless if you like sandwiches. (And who doesn't like sandwiches? You don't like sandwiches? What's wrong with you? You know who didn't like sandwiches? Hitler. Think about it.) Check out his posts on:
the Chacarero Completo at Barros Luco, 300 1/2 East 52nd Street
Ted's own homemade Cuban sandwich
the Sloppy Bao at Baoguette, various locations around the city
And stay tuned for what I assume will be several more sandwich posts, assuming Sandwich Week is accurately named.
In the meantime, the always-excellent Ted Berg of SNY takes some time out from his normal sportswriting to bring us Sandwich Week. It's not my own material, obviously (save for a few comments to Ted's posts), but worth a read nonetheless if you like sandwiches. (And who doesn't like sandwiches? You don't like sandwiches? What's wrong with you? You know who didn't like sandwiches? Hitler. Think about it.) Check out his posts on:
the Chacarero Completo at Barros Luco, 300 1/2 East 52nd Street
Ted's own homemade Cuban sandwich
the Sloppy Bao at Baoguette, various locations around the city
And stay tuned for what I assume will be several more sandwich posts, assuming Sandwich Week is accurately named.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Trader Joe's Update
You know, I'm going to have to stop going to Trader Joe's and buying way more than I planned to if they can't figure things out so that I don't have to spend 25 minutes in the checkout line at 9:30 at night. Jeez.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Deal Of The Century
So, hold on a second. You go into the bar. Not just during happy hour, or only on certain days of the week, but any time on any day. (I was there at around 11pm on a Tuesday.) You order a drink. Not just expensive drinks, or special drinks, or skunked kegs that they're trying to get rid of, but any drink. (I had a draft Yuengling for $4; most drafts were $5 and a couple were $6, and most bottles were $4 or $5. Nobody I was with had liquor, but I would guess it would be comparably reasonably priced.) The bartender hands you your drink, and with it you get a ticket. It's just a standard red ticket, but it may as well be golden.
Because, you see, at Lulu's (formerly known as the Alligator Lounge, at the corner of Greenpoint Avenue and Franklin Street a block West of the G train at Greenpoint Avenue), with each drink you buy, you get a ticket redeemable for a free personal pizza that's made to order.
Let me repeat that. Buy a drink, get a free personal pizza. How awesome is that?
And the pizza is actually pretty good. Made fresh when you order it, not frozen and heated in a microwave or something. You can add toppings for $1 each if you want; they had about four meat toppings, four vegetarian meat substitutes, and ten or twelve veggies. Here's mine, with pepperoni and mushrooms:
(Sorry it's a camera phone picture and not better quality.)
But I mean... even if it weren't great pizza, it's included for free with something you were buying anyway. This is just incredible, if you ask me. I'd keep going on about it, but I think it's pretty obvious by now how I feel.
By the way, tip the guy who's making the pizza. Totally worth it.
Because, you see, at Lulu's (formerly known as the Alligator Lounge, at the corner of Greenpoint Avenue and Franklin Street a block West of the G train at Greenpoint Avenue), with each drink you buy, you get a ticket redeemable for a free personal pizza that's made to order.
Let me repeat that. Buy a drink, get a free personal pizza. How awesome is that?
And the pizza is actually pretty good. Made fresh when you order it, not frozen and heated in a microwave or something. You can add toppings for $1 each if you want; they had about four meat toppings, four vegetarian meat substitutes, and ten or twelve veggies. Here's mine, with pepperoni and mushrooms:
(Sorry it's a camera phone picture and not better quality.)
But I mean... even if it weren't great pizza, it's included for free with something you were buying anyway. This is just incredible, if you ask me. I'd keep going on about it, but I think it's pretty obvious by now how I feel.
By the way, tip the guy who's making the pizza. Totally worth it.
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