Entries tagged with 'Manhattan'
Posted by Zach Brooks, May 17, 2008 at 10:00 AM
Pre-game buffet. (Photo courtesy of Eating in Translation)
With baseball season kicking into full swing, alot has been written about good eats around Shea and Yankee Stadiums, and with the Mets visiting the Bronx this weekend, I think the best suggestion I've seen so far has got to be this one from Dave Cook over at Eating in Translation. Sure it's in a different borough, but did you know that the Charles Southern Style Kitchen on Frederick Douglas (there are two locations) is only a 20-minute walk from Yankee stadium? What better way to lay the foundation for an afternoon of drinking than stuffing yourself at an all you can eat buffet. Show up at 11:30 a.m., and you'll have plenty of time to walk across the bridge for that one o'clock game.
Posted by Zach Brooks, May 16, 2008 at 5:00 PM
Robyn Lee is our resident macaron expert, but even this one befuddled her a bit (and by that, I mean, grossed her out). The "Philadelphia" macaron from the Macaron Cafe in the Garment District. Yes, that is smoked salmon, and the middle is filled with cream cheese, making it a the sweetest of "bagel" sandwiches (yes those are poppy seeds topping the thing).
Only recommended for those who don't mind a little bit of smoked fishiness in their sweets. The Macaron Cafe has only made two batches, but both sold out pretty quickly, they said. You can call and order them in advance or just stop by and hope to get lucky (worse case scenario: You'll end up with one of their equally delicious but more standard macaron flavors).
Macaron Cafe
161 West 36th Street, Manhattan NY 10018 (near Seventh Avenue; map)
646-573-5048
Posted by Ed Levine, May 16, 2008 at 2:30 PM
Taste of Tribeca is one of the more fun, reasonably priced food events in New York.
For $40 ($45 at the door), you get to try six tasting plates from an impressive line-up of Tribeca restaurants, including Bouley, Chanterelle, Blaue Gans, Centrico, Pepolino (one of city's best under-the-radar Tuscan restaurants), and The Harrison. Plus, it's for a great cause: two terrific Tribeca public schools, PS 150 and PS 234.
If you click through to Taste of Tribeca's fairly well-organized website, you can actually try to plot which booths you want to visit. Alas, it must be pointed out that many restaurants, including all of David Bouley's (Bouley, Bouley Bakery, Danube) and The Harrison, did not submit their dishes to the organizers, so when you click on their names, it just says "chef's surprise." No help!
Anyway, here's where I'll be headed tomorrow. Don't worry, I've left some room on my dance card to partake of the chef's surprises.
Carnitas tacos from Centrico
Schnitzel and potato salad from Blaue Gans
Pappe al pomodoro, the incomparable Tuscan tomato bread soup, from Pepolino
Posted by Zach Brooks, May 15, 2008 at 9:30 AM
Even if it was 100 degrees out, I would still eat you.
Got a message from The Dessert Truck last night saying that they have phased out the Gianduja pot de creme and the hot chocolate from their menu, and plan on slowly getting rid of the rest of their hot items in favor of more spring and summer desserts. So if you are as big a fan of the molten chocolate cake and slow-baked apples as we are, you may want to hit up the truck soon, before they're gone. (Although if it gets any hotter, it may be tough to not order the brand new special, Pavlova.)
Related:
The Dessert Truck: For Desserts on the Go
Posted by Adam Kuban, May 14, 2008 at 6:15 PM
So a lot has happened since I first hipped you to the retro Good Humor man earlier this week. Who knew that when I was talking to Jose "Jay" Martinez on Sunday that he was one party in bitter feud among ice cream men? The New York Times reported earlier today on the re-emergence of the Good Humor brand in Manhattan and the "cold war" that erupted on a corner on the Upper West Side on Tuesday afternoon:
“I sell Good Humor, too,” said [Ceasar Ruiz, who operates out of a Mister Softee truck]. “But his is more cheap. I sell bar for $2. He might sell for $1.50. Not good. Not good....”
“I’m trying to make a dollar just like he is,” said [José] Martinez, his voice rising loud enough for the other driver to hear. “He’s telling me I have to go. But he doesn’t own this spot.”
“Good Humor started this whole thing,” Mr. Martinez added, forcing a smile and tipping his cap at a passer-by who slowed just long enough to admire the vintage ice cream truck, a restored 1966 Ford. “We’re the originals.”
I was in the middle of this drafting this post when word came in on the Times City Room blog of a drastic shift in the stand-off.
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Posted by Ed Levine, May 14, 2008 at 4:45 PM
Having been to Eighty-One a few times, I basically concur with Frank Bruni's take. Ed Brown is a superb cook, and I have eaten very well at his restaurant. But his food is sometimes overwrought (what Bruni referred to as the "numerous trios"), and the room, with its vivid red-velvet curtains, feels oddly dated and lacks energy. I will say it's a very civilized place to dine. The tables are well-spaced, and the noise level is low. Must-haves on the menu include the lamb three ways (overwrought but delicious) and the exceptional New Bedford sea scallop and foie gras ravioli with straw wine sauce and chervil (Bruni and I disagree on this dish, but scallops and foie gras turn out to be a most felicitous combination as a ravioli filling). Eighty-One is a perfect restaurant to take your in-laws to, especially if they're paying (it ain't cheap). 45 West 81st Street, New York NY 10024 (map)
Posted by Brian Halweil, May 14, 2008 at 1:45 PM
"... The beans whirred through pneumatic tubes overhead, sorted by the Selectifier (yes, Willy Wonka references are common)"
Strange brew. (Photographs from roastingplant.com)
The Roasting Plant, at 81 Orchard Street on Manhattan's Lower East Side, is an essential destination for any one who cares about good coffee. Or anyone who wants a glimpse of how we will drink coffee in the future. It was recently Slashdotted for "using new thinking and methodologies to something that was previously regarded as a black art." Gizmag.com called it the world's first "walk-in coffee machine." And a cover story in Design News praised the "real-time distributed control system" for democratizing and streamlining the coffee-making process so that the trip from green bean to creamy cup takes less than 30 seconds and never yields bitterness.
Remember, we're still talking about coffee. And despite the Terry Gilliam–like devices, the Roasting Plant is about the next iteration in American coffee culture, stripping away confections and condiments to reveal a very good cup of Joe. The Ethiopian Harrar Longberry cappuccino that I enjoyed there recently was as beautiful for its cupping qualities—with pleasant blueberry notes—as for the space-age process by which the beans whirred through pneumatic tubes overhead, sorted by the Selectifier (yes, Willy Wonka references are common), and dropped into an Egro brewing machine, guided by selections on a touch screen and the wizardry of the custom-designed Javabot (international patent number PLT/US03/02069). You've got to see it to believe it.
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Posted by Ed Levine, May 13, 2008 at 11:00 PM
The gentleman exiting the building is not Ed Levine. (Photographs: Robyn Lee)
With barbecue joints seemingly sprouting up on every corner these days in New York, it's easy to forget what a barbecue wilderness Gotham was for so many years.
When I arrived in New York in 1973, there was precious little real barbecue, slow-smoked meat cooked with indirect heat. Even by the late '80s our barbecue options here were limited to Smokey's on Ninth Avenue (for North Carolina barbecue), Stick to Your Ribs in Queens, and Tennessee Mountain Home in SoHo.
Wildwood BBQ
225 Park Avenue South, New York NY 10003 (at 18th Street; map)
212-533-2500
Website
Must-Haves: Brisket, short ribs, beans, cornbread, salt and vinegar potato chips
What You'll Spend: $30 and up (not including alcohol) for dinner
Grade: B
The barbecue game-changers in our town were Virgil's in Times Square and Blue Smoke in the Flatiron District, both opened by respected restaurateurs (the late Artie Cutler, and Danny Meyer, respectively). Following those in short order were Daisy May's, the first chef-driven barbecue joint in New York (Daniel and Le Cirque veteran Adam Perry Lang), R.U.B. (Paul Kirk), with its Kansas City–influenced style; and Hill Country, which harkened to Smokey's with its dedication to a single regional barbecue style (in its case, central Texas's German butcher–derived 'cue). Hill Country (Robbie Richter and Big Lou Elrose) and Daisy May's were also the first barbecue joints manned by competition pit masters who honed their barbecue skills on the national 'cue competition circuit.
Now comes Wildwood BBQ, which brings together the talents of an interesting trio: megasuccessful, commercially oriented restaurateur Steve Hanson, the aforementioned pit master Elrose, and uber restaurant designer David Rockwell. Hanson has made it clear that he hopes to roll out Wildwood nationally in the next year, bringing his pan-regional, urbane-but-not-fancy-pants barbecue concept to a city near you. But barbecue is tricky business, serious eaters, and does not easily translate to multiple locations, so I was curious as to what I would find at Wildwood.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, May 13, 2008 at 1:30 PM
Although I had passed Chinatown's New Yeah Shanghai Deluxe innumerable times (as it is conveniently located just a few doors down from Chinatown Ice Cream Factory, one of my most frequented ice cream shops), I never felt compelled to try it until pushed by my trusted food partner-in-crime, Kathy. We gathered together a group of six to get the most out of my inaugural meal, but I left still longing for certain dishes we didn't get to try. Here's a rundown of what we did manage to eat in one sitting.
We started with scallion pancakes, which are nothing like the breakfast variety, but more like a flatbread. The most delicious flatbread ever: crisp on the outside, soft on the inside, and harboring chopped scallions within its flaky layers. It's hard to resist immediately shoving a piping hot slice into your mouth—perhaps after dipping into the accompanying spicy soy sauce—but then you risk burning off some delicate inner-mouth skin cells. It's probably worth it though.
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Posted by Ed Levine, May 13, 2008 at 11:00 AM
Or, 'Pig Out to Feed Hungry People'
Hunger relief organization Share Our Strength's annual Taste of the Nation New York City benefit is this Wednesday, May 14, at the Roseland Ballroom.
SOS is a terrific organization that supports hunger-relief efforts all over the country. Plus, it's an organization that knows how to throw a helluva party. This year, more than 50 restaurants will be cooking at and for the event, including Gramercy Tavern, Blue Hill, Esca, and Hill Country. So if you pony up the money ($375 for a ticket that, among other things, gets you in an hour early to avoid long lines, or $275 for general admission), you end up eating great food and drinking to your heart's content for a really good cause.
Tickets available at newyorktaste.org or by calling 1-877-268-2783.
Posted by Adam Kuban, May 12, 2008 at 5:00 PM
Humor me, won'tcha?
The ice cream man almost always serves as an icy blast from days long past. Especially so if he's rocking an early-model Ford and dressed in retro mid-century togs, as Jay here is, right down to the belt-situated coin changer.
I encountered Jay yesterday in Manhattan on 53rd Street yesterday, just east of the Museum of Modern Art, where a small crowd of looky-loos had slowed down to admire the customized vintage Ford pickup from which he's selling the usual array of ice cream treats. The truck, he said, had been customized for ice cream conveyance long ago and had been recently salvaged from a fleet of retired Good Humor trucks. Though he originally cited 1942 as the model year, a little research tells me it's likely a 1961 or '62.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, May 12, 2008 at 1:45 PM
Momofuku Ko's bathroom
Momofuku Ko has been extensively written about and photographed, but one thing that no one's mentioned is the bathroom. What kind of literature does one find at Ko?
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Posted by Robyn Lee, May 9, 2008 at 4:00 PM
The somewhat non-existent sign outside the restaurant, and the interior.
Do you have any idea how many times I wished I could eat a dinner in which i could alternate mouthfuls of fried chicken with bites of spicy, kimchi-laden tofu? More than you can imagine.
So thank god for Forte Baden Baden. While this restaurant in Korea Town is meant to resembles a German beer hall (it takes its name from the German town Baden-Baden), the food is just about all Korean. Either that, or fried. Don't be put off by the dirty hallway and odd smelling stairway that leads to this easy-to-miss second story restaurant. It's a small hurdle to get over in order to reach the feast of chicken within.
Fried chicken + fried potato = glorious.
A large order of the fried chicken—which is actually a whole deep-fried rotisserie chicken, putting the chicken's flavor somewhere between "rotisserie" and "deep fried"—was enough to feed my party of five. (Don't worry; it also comes in a smaller size, although a smaller size that's probably still hefty.) Granted, it was accompanied/smothered by a carbohydrate bomb in the form of a mountain of fries. Not just any fries though; these crisp babies, perhaps just a bit thicker than the McDonald's variety, had a slightly rough texture on the outer crust that gave it extra "oomph" in the crunchiness department, making them dangerously irresistible. The chicken wasn't to die for, but the meat was moist enough and blanketed by a crispy, fatty layer of skin. Beneath the chicken were a few slices of vegetables that seemed out of place, and some puddingly-soft, whole roasted cloves of garlic.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, May 7, 2008 at 6:30 PM
Editor's note: Robyn Lee, is also known as the Girl Who Ate Everything, and that's not far from the truth. She's out and about so much around the city that I asked her to write about some of favorite New York spots for this site. This is the first of them. —Ed Levine
The outside and inside of Tiny's Giant Sandwich Shop, along with some sandwich innards
The Lower East Side's Tiny's Giant Sandwich Shop is my most oft-visited sandwich shop in the city. They may not make the best sandwiches in the city, but the quality is much better than what you'd expect for the price, and the location and setting make it a convenient, relaxing place for me to eat dinner with friends.
What's Good?
My favorite sandwiches involve melted cheese, from standards like the seemingly butter-laden grilled cheese and tuna melt, to more interesting ones like Silly Philly Portobello (portobello mushrooms, sautéed onions, and provolone cheese) and Southwestern Chicken (breaded chicken cutlet, melted cheddar, bacon, onion, and barbecue sauce). If you're not into gooey cheese, you can create your own sandwich from their wide selection of breads, ingredients, and spreads.
Many sandwiches can be made vegetarian, I assume by way of replacing the meat with a soy-based substitute. I've never tried these sandwiches, but I heard they're very good. And if you don't want a sandwich (which would be crazy, but hey, whatever floats your boat), there are plenty of salads to choose from.
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Posted by Emily Koh, May 7, 2008 at 10:00 AM
Most people cite Gray's Papaya for good hot dogs, but if you're looking for more bang for your buck, your best bet is in Chinatown at Jumbo Hot Dog, where you can get a filling hot dog for 92¢ ($1 once you add tax). Cheap Ass Food crunched some numbers for comparison on their last visit: Gray's dogs are 5 inches in length and 5/8 inches in diameter, while this quarter-pound jumbo wiener clocks in at 6 inches and 1.25 inches in diameter. Onions, relish, and sauerkraut cost an extra 25¢ each. Our man Ed Levine stopped by two years ago and wasn't too crazy about them. Perhaps it's time for a second visit, Ed?
Jumbo Hot Dog
Canal Street and Bowery (map)
Posted by Ed Levine, May 6, 2008 at 10:00 PM
Editor's note: Starting this week I am going to post a restaurant review every Tuesday night. Why? Because it's fun to do and because I think serious eaters could use a little guidance when they're searching for something delicious to eat in New York City (I know I certainly appreciate any reliable food advice I get). That's what my reviews are going to focus on: the search for deliciousness. When it comes to what I'll be reviewing, I'm certainly not going to limit myself to fancy-pants restaurants or even dinner. In the coming weeks I'm going to review breakfast joints, lunch spots, and even places that serve only snacks. Serious eaters just want something delicious when they're hungry, and hopefully we're going to help you find exactly that. —Ed Levine
Terroir
From left: Veal and ricotta meatballs, beet risotto balls with gorgonzola cheese.
I drink so little wine I would not even call myself a casual drinker, so wine bars in and of themselves hold little interest for me. But when a serious chef and his passionately unsnobby wine expert and restaurateur partner open a wine bar, well, that gets my attention.
Marco Canora, whose long, deep-flavored food I've been eating for ten years, and his business partner, Paul Greico, have opened Terroir, a casually spiffy wine bar just down the street from their first restaurant, Hearth (they also own a terrific Midtown Italian restaurant, Insieme).
Though the food at Hearth and Insieme is clearly the work of a very serious cook using the best ingredients, Canora has always had a fondness for hearty populist foods like sandwiches, soups, and sausage. He was the original opening chef at Craft Bar when those kinds of items were on the menu there, and the food at Terroir is a continuation of his love affair with those kinds of foods.
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Posted by Ed Levine, May 6, 2008 at 5:30 PM
Restaurant critic Alan Richman managed to drag David Chang to Ippudo to opine on its ramen.
Chang didn't take the bait (he doesn't consider himself the ramen king of New York, and he said he liked the ramen at Ippudo), but there are some amusing exchanges between the two. Both Richman and Chang recognized the quality of the broth and the noodles, but Richman didn't think much of the pork slices. I actually thought they were terrific.
Posted by Barbara Hanson, May 6, 2008 at 1:15 PM
Editor's note: Please welcome Serious Eats community member BaHa, aka Barbara Hanson, who will be checking in now and again with dispatches about the various little one-of-a-kind food stores and markets in New York. She makes her debut with a new-to-us ingredient from an old favorite, Economy Candy—with an intriguing recipe. —Ed Levine
Economy Candy has stood on Rivington Street, on the Lower East Side, for the last 71 years. These days, it lives in the gloomy shadow of the ultratrendy hotel Thor, but trendy is not a word one would ever apply to Economy: It looks like what it is, a proper old-style candy store, down to the barrel of scoop-your-own peanuts. Candy, fruit, and nuts all compete for your attention in aisles so narrow that you can't (at least I can't) back up far enough to see the top shelves opposite. There are enough competing smells to make you dizzy. New varieties of candy (and "new" here often means an older or regional candy rediscovered and brought back to light) arrive frequently.
Walk past the counter, if you can muster the will to bypass endless boxes of almost-forgotten candies, including Mallo Cups (and Valomilk, rarely seen in New York), Joyva Jell Rings and Marshmallow Twists, and French Chew Taffy, regarded by experts in the field as the only possible successor to the long-extinct and much-lamented Bonomo's Turkish Taffy.
To the rear of the store, in boxes and bins and behind shining glass cases, lies a trove of high-quality, inexpensive nuts, as well as dried and glacéed fruit. Among them is one dried fruit I've never seen anywhere else: cantaloupe.
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Posted by Ed Levine, May 3, 2008 at 8:34 AM
Ouest chef-owner Tom Valenti is certainly one of New York's greatest chefs, but he also truly loves to eat, and he really enjoys exploring food in his Upper Broadway-Riverside Drive neighborhood known as Sugar Hill. Sugar Hill is south of the rapidly gentrifying Washington Heights, and serious eaters should know it's definitely worthy a trip, especially if you you are fond of Cuban sandwiches, roast pork, and fried chicken. Valenti takes Time Out New York on a food tour of his neighborhood, which most non-Spanish-speaking New Yorkers never venture to.
His stops included:
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Posted by Ed Levine, April 30, 2008 at 7:00 PM
Julia Moskin weighs in (pun intended) on the "Next Best Things in Sliced Bread in New York City." I of course weighed in on this weighty issue a couple of years ago in the New York Times. Some of Moskin's discoveries I can't wait to try, like the merguez sandwich at Little Morocco or the pork butt al pastor cemita at Kiosko in Port Chester. Others I already knew. And some left me cold, like the chili mackerel mantou at Province.
A couple of favorites from my own Times article: The pork chop hero at Sandy's Lechoneria, 116th Street and Second Avenue, and the crisp skin-on roast chicken hero at Milanes, 25th Street and Seventh Avenue.
Posted by Adam Kuban, April 29, 2008 at 6:00 PM
Or, 'Where to Eat in Liberty City'
After much anticipation from millions of gamers, Grand Theft Auto 4 debuted worldwide today. This being Serious Eats, we did some digging around on the game's website for any food- or restaurant-related material inside the game, which takes place in "Liberty City," a metropolis loosely modeled on New York City. Here's what we found.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, April 29, 2008 at 1:30 PM
Or, 'Would You Like to Touch My Monkey?'
From Eater's "Gatekeepers" series, in which the blog talks to front-of-the-house staff about their domains, comes this bizarre incident related by George Atterbury, general manager of Grayz:
What's the most outrageous request from a customer that you couldn't accommodate?
A customer wanted to dine with their pet monkey in the restaurant. Literally we had a guest walk into the restaurant hand in hand with a monkey and asked to be seated at the best possible table. I have been witness to a lot of different requests since coming from The Modern but that definitely has topped any request. The monkey was even wearing a little Burberry jacket.
Grayz
Address: 13-15 West 54th Street, New York NY (Midtown; map)
Phone: 212-262-4600
Website: grayz.net
Grub Street has an annotated still life with baked goods that illustrates the goodies on offer at Batch, Pichet Ong's new bakery Batch, including foie gras dog biscuits. Batch: 150B West 10th Street, New York NY 10014 (Greenwich Village; map)
Posted by Ed Levine, April 29, 2008 at 11:45 AM
From left: Sausage, egg, and cheese on a burger bun, from Gray's Papaya; grilled asparagus, frittata, and asiago cheese on a ciabatta roll, from Grandaisy Bakery. Both next door to each other, near the corner of West 72nd and Broadway.
Is there anything better than a breakfast sandwich in the morning? Combine smoked or cured pork (in the form of bacon, ham, or sausage) with eggs and cheese, and place it all on bread of some sort. I defy anyone to resist. While most serious eaters know that Gray's Papaya is the home of very fine hot dogs, many don't know that Gray's also makes a worthy breakfast sandwich: a sausage patty or a thick slice of ham, a scrambled egg made to order on the grill, and a slice of American cheese on a heated hamburger bun. All for a hard-to-beat $1.75.
Next door to Gray's is a recently opened branch of the Grandaisy Bakery. It serves a wonderful, more upscale breakfast sandwich of a completely different stripe: grilled asparagus, frittata, and asiago cheese on a ciabatta roll. It's totally delicious in its own right, though at $5, this sandwich requires a more substantial financial commitment.
Which is the superior breakfast sandwich? I can't decide. It depends on my mood. I urge all of you to try both and make up your own minds. You'll be participating in the highest form of food democracy.
Gray's Papaya
Address: 2090 Broadway, New York NY 10023 (at 72nd Street)
Notes: Breakfast sandwich available daily until noon
Grandaisy Bakery
Address: 176 West 72nd Street (bet. Broadway and Columbus), New York, NY 10023
Phone: 646-274-1607
Notes: Breakfast sandwich available Friday–Sunday, some weekdays
Posted by Ed Levine, April 24, 2008 at 8:30 AM
"I have not been to one other restaurant anywhere in the world where I feel the same energy that I do at Babbo."
Like most serious eaters, I've been searching for deliciousness my whole life, but sometimes, in more reflective moments, even I acknowledge there's often more to eating out than great food. Obviously for me the food is paramount, but there are other factors that go into judging great restaurants. How welcome do I feel? Do I feel well taken care of? Am I having a good time? Does the restaurant make my dining companions and me feel special? Can I easily hear what the people I am with are saying? Is the service personal without being intrusive? Does the energy in a restaurant match or even elevate my own? How does the restaurant's look and feel affect how its customers look and feel?
Most of all, I want the restaurant experience to be about the food, the people I'm eating with, and me—not about the chef or the server or the sommelier.
So taking all these factors into account, what are my favorite restaurant-going experiences in New York? If going to a great restaurant is, as the restaurant designer David Rockwell once told me, like taking a vacation from my life, what restaurants in New York are my five favorite respites from a busy life?
Note: Two restaurants on my list, Per Se and Masa, are very expensive, and some serious eaters may decide they are in fact too expensive. A more moderately priced, just-as-special dining experience can be had at lunch at Jean-Georges, Jean-Georges Vongerichten's flagship restaurant. $14 a course to eat in a most cheerful, light-filled space is the greatest serious food bargain in the world.
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Posted by Gordon Mark, April 23, 2008 at 8:30 AM
Manhattan's Chinatown is a huge neighborhood that seems to be getting bigger every day. Although it's a good thing that the neighborhood offers a nearly endless number of eateries, you may be overwhelmed by all the choices. Where do you go on an empty stomach? What do you order? Sometimes, when you're faced with such a wealth of options, it's best to narrow your focus a bit. This, then, is a guide to Chinatown bakeries. (For our purposes, we went to both the main part of Chinatown—between the Canal Street and Grand Street subway stations—and to the less-touristy East Broadway section.) With at least a bakery per block (and sometimes more), you should never be too far from one.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, April 9, 2008 at 8:30 AM
Have you ever ambled around your town thinking, "My god, I could really go for a fresh crème brûlée right now; if only there were a conveniently located truck selling high-end desserts for reasonable prices. If only."
Whether or not this thought has crossed your mind, you willdevelop a craving for crème brûlée when you come across the welcoming window of the Dessert Truck at 8th Street and University Place in New York's Greenwich Village. Not in the mood for crème brûlée? How about chocolate bread pudding or molten chocolate cake, just two of the six options on the truck's dessert menu? Thanks to the truck's founders, pastry chef Jerome Chang (formerly the pastry sous chef at Le Cirque) and Columbia business school student Chris Chen, your blood sugar will be less at risk for dipping to a suboptimal level.
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Posted by Ed Levine, April 6, 2008 at 2:26 PM
Yesterday I stopped at the Union Square Greenmarket and couldn't help buying a cranberry walnut square from the Breezy Hill Orchards stand. Elizabeth Ryan, Breezy Hills' owner, is one of the best baker-farmers I know, and this buttery, not-very-sweet square is further proof of that. The cranberries, of course, provide some much-needed tartness, and the walnuts added some nutty crunch. Breezy Hill Orchards is at the Union Square Greenmarket Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday.
Posted by Ed Levine, April 1, 2008 at 8:00 AM
If you're a New York pizza freak (and aren't we all?), you're going to be hearing a lot about Artichoke, the tiny new East Village pizzeria that's just opened on East 14th Street. Slicers (readers and contributors) have already weighed in on Artichoke, and in the coming days I'm sure every pizza-loving food writer is going to be writing about it as well. I reported on my first Artichoke experience over on Slice, and I think the place has great potential, but at this point it's too early to anoint it the new Di Fara. Let's give the promising young pizzaiolo at Artichoke some time before we drown them in cheesy hype.
Posted by Ed Levine, March 17, 2008 at 8:30 AM
Sometimes, just when you thought there was nothing left to write about a subject, someone comes along and writes such a good piece you can only shake your head and wish you had written it yourself. That's how I feel after reading Larissa McFarquhar's profile of David Chang in this week's New Yorker. Chang seems to have allowed McFarquhar almost total access as he and his staff prepare to open Momofuku Ko.
If you're interested in food and chefs and people in general striving to do something meaningful in their lives, you must read this piece. Chang reveals himself to be a genuinely tortured (and conflicted) if well-meaning soul with generously spirited impulses, prodigious talent, and impossibly high Thomas Keller–and–Daniel Boulud-like standards. And as I have written many times over the years, the man can flat out cook, even if he won't admit it to himself. At Ko, as I reported last week, Chang and his merry gang of renegade cooks have taken their craft to deliciously inventive new heights.
After the jump, some quotes from the story highlighted in the press release the New Yorker sent out. Alas, our backward friends at the magazine have not yet put the story online. The profile is so revealing and insightful that the issue is worth buying.
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Posted by Ed Levine, February 26, 2008 at 8:50 AM
Imagine a a new kind of Greek coffee shop, one opened by a really talented chef who uses good ingredients and does his thing in an environmentally friendly way.
Sounds good, doesn't it? Sounds like a concept that any New Yorker would welcome in their neighborhood. Well, Columbia and Morningside Heights have the first one: Community Food & Juice.
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Posted by Ed Levine, February 25, 2008 at 11:30 AM
New York magazine food critic Adam Platt all but called Bar Boulud strikingly ordinary. Time Out New York's Randall Lane and the New York Daily News' Restaurant Girl concurred. They all seemed to come to the same conclusion: The food at Bar Boulud, other than the charcuterie, isn't special enough. Is all this criticism justified? Is it fair? Where's the beef? Let me try to answer all of the above questions.
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Posted by Ed Levine, February 23, 2008 at 9:30 AM
What is it with New York burger joints that don't open until darkness looms? Are they trying to imply that burgers are not to be eaten until late in the day? I'm in a burger-foraging mood today, and I would love to try the burger at either Royale, which A Hamburger Today's Lauren Krueger made sound so good, or the Stoned Crow, but neither opens until at least 4 p.m. Have certain New York burgers attained such a level of hipness that they cannot be consumed until the sun goes down? C'mon, people. This is ridiculous.
Royale
157 Avenue C, New York NY (at 10th Street)
212-254-6600
Stoned Crow
85 Washington Place, New York NY
212-677-4022
Posted by Ed Levine, February 16, 2008 at 8:27 AM
Frank Bruni's review of the Second Avenue Deli in Wednesday's New York Times captured the emotional resonance of the new deli in an understated but undeniably powerful fashion. It was light on the obvious schmaltz and funny besides. My favorite line:
"On every table sits a free bowl of gribenes, chicken skin fried in chicken fat. In the past you had to ask for it. Now you just have to atone for it."
The new Second Avenue Deli is a special place, for reasons that way beyond the gribenes, pastrami, and french fries (though they're all pretty special in their own right).
It's one of these rare places where you can feel and even taste the underlying emotion, no matter what you order and where you sit. If you live in or near New York hit the Second Avenue Deli soon. Visitors to the city should also plan to have a meal there. Do order the pastrami, the mushroom barley soup, and the french fries. You will have a splendid meal. You'll also be really, really full.
And you'll feel good that you ate there.
Posted by Ed Levine, February 13, 2008 at 9:00 AM
Downtown chocolate places for Valentine's Day worth a nibble and a few extra calories:
Last time I walked into Chocolate Bar they had a pretty good selection of other chocolatier's chocolates, but they were all rather pricey, perhaps because everything they buy almost everything they sell and mark it up accordingly.
Address: 48 Eighth Ave. (bet. Horatio and Jane Sts.)
Phone: 212-366-1541
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Posted by Ed Levine, February 9, 2008 at 11:30 AM
Midtown and Upper East Side chocolate places for Valentine's Day worth a nibble and a few extra calories:
MarieBelle
Maribel Lieberman has gone uptown on us, but her hot chocolate and chocolates are still as good as ever. Don't worry—her Soho location is still open. 762 Madison Avenue, between 65th and 66th Streets; 212-249-4585; mariebelle.com
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Posted by Ed Levine, January 14, 2008 at 11:27 AM
I was passing E.A.T. yesterday, and the siren call of Eli Zabar's overpriced but usually delicious food got the best of me.
I ordered four items, all sweets; a quarter-pound of the fruit coffee cake ($3), a mini chocolate cupcake ($2), a black and white cookie, and a cup of Eboni and Ivory Pudding (chocolate and vanilla) ($4).
The coffee cake was reasonably moist and had thick veins of dried fruit, but it had too much orange rind in it for my taste. The mini chocolate cupcake was very chocolatey if a little dry. The black and white cookie tasted less than fresh.
The clear winner of the quartet was the pudding combo. It was almost obscenely rich and creamy with loads of real vanilla and high quality milk chocolate flavor. It might be the best pudding to be had anywhere in New York outside the butterscotch pudding at Sweet Melissa's in Brooklyn.
Note to all Ed Levine Diet Helpers: I adhered to my one-bite rule for all four items mentioned above, except for the pudding. I had two spoonfuls. It was just too good.
E.A.T.
Address: 1064 Madison Avenue, New York NY 10128 (b/n 80th and 81st streets)
Phone: 212-772-0022
Posted by Ed Levine, January 12, 2008 at 9:00 AM
I hadn't been to Lombardi's in a year or so, so when two pizza-crazed colleagues from Minneapolis came to New York this week, I decided they should experience eating at the oldest pizzeria in America. We ordered three pies: a small sausage; a small half-pepperoni, half-pancetta; and a small half-plain white, half–sautéed spinach. All the pies were at least very good, and the white pie was awesome.
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Posted by Ed Levine, January 5, 2008 at 2:00 PM
Eat three-course prix-fixe meals at some of New York City's best restaurants without breaking the bank during Restaurant Week Winter 2008. During the weeks of January 21 to 25 and January 28 to February 1, participating restaurants will serve lunches for $24.07 and dinners for $35.
Although the dates are still weeks away, we thought it would be worthwhile to give you our picks now so that you could make the necessary reservations immediately. If you can, call first to find out what they're serving for restaurant week. Some restaurants try to cheap out. Happy Hunting.
- A Voce: Lunch, a great opportunity to sample Andrew Carmellini's gutsy, Italian-influenced food
- Anthos: Lunch and dinner, for the lamb burger alone, this is a great choice
- Chinatown Brasserie: lunch and dinner, hope the attitude doesn't come with the bargain
- Bolo: Lunch and dinner, because it is underrated and about to close
- Craft: Lunch, see what Colicchio is up to now that Craft is back serving lunch
- Del Posto: Lunch, this is a quiet oasis for lunch and will probably still be during restaurant week
- L'Impero: Lunch, see what chef Michael White has done for the kitchen
- Morimoto: Lunch, hope they are serving more than noodles and rice
- Prime House New York and Porter House New York: Lunch, I only hope they serve more than chopped steak
- Tabla: Lunch, Floyd Cardoz is at the top of his game
- Telepan: Lunch, his burger, fries, and onion rings are all stellar
Posted by Ed Levine, January 4, 2008 at 8:00 AM
Our lady in Paris (at least half the time), Dorie Greenspan, posted on Serious Eats yesterday about the French seasonal cake galette de rois. Magically (well, not quite magically, in fact I ordered one) a galette des rois (pictured above) appeared on the Serious Eats doorstep yesterday from the SoHo French pastry shop Ceci Cela. I don't know if Ceci Cela's version is as good as one made from Dorie's recipe, but I can tell you that this is one delicious cake.
Dorie's description is right on: "The galette is really very simple—it’s an almond and pastry-cream filling sandwiched by two rounds of (all-butter) puff pastry dough—but so, so good."
I thought the almond part of the filling would make it taste marzipany, but in fact it was simply ground almonds.
Ed Levine diet watchers should note that I took two bites. Email the Serious Eaters for corroboration.
Ceci Cela Patisserie
55 Spring Street, New York NY 10012 (b/n Mulberry and Lafayette); 212-274-9179
166 Chambers Street, New York NY 10017 (b/n West Broadway and Greenwich); 212-566-8933
Website: ceci-celapatisserie.com
Posted by Ed Levine, December 26, 2007 at 7:38 AM
The best new restaurant lists have started to come out in magazines and newspapers across the country, and we're going to try to track them for you at Serious Eats. But let's come up with our own Serious Eaters' List in the meantime.
I've been to eight of the ten restaurants on Frank Bruni's list of the Ten Best New Restaurants in New York:
1. Momofuku Ssam Bar (though including MSB as a new restaurant because of the date they officially started dinner service seems like a stretch to me.
2. Soto
3. (Tie) Anthos
4. Insieme
5. Park Avenue (Insert Season Here)
6. Resto
9. Pamplona
10. Mai House
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Posted by Ed Levine, December 15, 2007 at 8:30 AM
I didn't expect to be so moved when I walked into the Second Avenue Deli for a preview "friends and family" meal last night, but I have to admit my eyes welled up with tears when I saw Jack Lebewohl, brother of Second Avenue Deli founder, the late Abe Lebewohl, standing by the door. I guess I didn't realize how much Abe and his deli had meant to me.
When I was a teenager going to the Fillmore East as often as I could, the Second Avenue Deli was my stop for comfort food before the show. When I first came to New York to live after college, the Second Avenue Deli became one of my go-to spots for shelter from the city's storm. Full disclosure: Before I ever wrote about food, when I wrote about music and promoted jazz concerts, I made a little money writing copy for the Second Avenue Deli mail-order catalog (I'm responsible for coining the phrase "give the gift of noshing").
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Posted by Ed Levine, November 27, 2007 at 7:54 AM
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Every Chinese food lover I know in New York has been decrying the decline of Chinese restaurants in Manhattan. You have to go to Flushing or Sunset Park to get a good Chinese meal, they all say.
Well, stop the fortune cookie presses. A couple of weeks ago I got a tip from a friend touting a great Sichuan restaurant in a most unlikely location, West 39th Street, between Fifth and Sixth avenues. I went with a chef buddy last week the day before Thanksgiving, and, boy, were we blown away.
Szechuan Gourmet, a Manhattan branch of a Flushing restaurant of the same name (I don't even know if the Queens branch is still open), serves some mighty fine Sichuan food. Everything we had was at least a solid B-plus and most dishes were much better than that. The Dan Dan Noodles With Chile-Minced Pork were merely very good, but the Chef's Ma Paul Tofu was sensational, cloud light and fiery hot. Double Cooked Sliced Pork Belly With Chile Leeks was divinely porky and meaty, and the Stir Fried Chicken With Roasted Chile had me wanting to return the next day.
Szechuan Gourmet joins a short list of fine Sichuan restaurants in Manhattan:
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Posted by Ed Levine, November 12, 2007 at 8:28 AM
The Sullivan Street Bakery situation has been difficult to follow, even for someone like me who's known all the parties involved for years.
Jim Lahey and Monica Von Thun Calderon were the original partners of the Sullivan Street Bakery on Sullivan Street. Last year Jim and Monica dissolved their partnership. Monica kept the original location and renamed it the Grandaisy Bakery, where she continues to use Jim's recipes. Jim kept the West 47th Street location.
So far, so good, right? Monica has now opened another branch of Grandaisy on West 72nd Street, right next to Gray's Papaya. Jim is shortly going to open a pizzeria-cafe on Ninth Avenue and 24th Street. Just to further complicate things for Upper West Siders in need of Sullivan Street Bakery bread, Fairway stopped selling Sullivan Street bread within the last year and replaced it with a Bronx bakery started by a former Sullivan Street employee. These breads look like Jim Lahey's breads, but they're not quite as good.
Now that we've gotten that out of the way, how are the goods at the new Grandaisy?
To use a Larry David expression, pretty, pretty good.
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Posted by Ed Levine, November 1, 2007 at 9:17 AM
My brother and I supped at the Blue Ribbon Sushi Bar and Grill, the latest Blue Ribbon outpost, tucked into Six Columbus, a boutique hotel on West 58th Street. I expected a scene-driven, noisy restaurant that would make the two Levine brothers feel old. I turned out to be dead wrong. This is a restaurant for grown-ups, with a terrific menu that could be described as Blue Ribbon's Greatest Hits. The sushi was first-rate, not surprising given the fact that the restaurant's delayed opening allowed Blue Ribbon Sushi chef-partner Toshi Ueki to train fifteen sushi chefs over the course of six months. From the grill I had the hanger steak served with roasted mushrooms and a stack of what the menu described as Tokyo-fried scallions. My bro had the fried chicken and he generously gave me the drumstick. Blue Ribbon owners Bruce and Eric Bromberg are among a handful of great fried chicken makers in the city, and the version they serve here comes with a wasabi-honey dipping sauce that though quite good is not really necessary. This is fried chicken that is perfectly seasoned, with a greaseless, crunchy exterior, and a meaty, moist interior. The smoked trout salad had little pieces of house-smoked trout that were too dry and salty.
As an Upper West Side resident I'm thrilled to have my very own Blue Ribbon outpost so close by, especially one that so easily allows conversation.
Blue Ribbon Sushi Bar and Grill
Address: 6 Columbus Circle, New York NY 10019 (at West 58th Street; map)
Phone: 212-397-0404
Posted by Ed Levine, October 23, 2007 at 8:00 AM
Writing about the late, great Abe Lebewohl, a man's stomach turns its attention to delis—Jewish-style delis of course. Some of my earliest food memories are of eating at Wilshire's Deli on Central Avenue in Lawrence, New York. I remember my typical lunch there being a pastrami sandwich and two hot dogs, but I couldn't have eaten that much, could I?
One of the first dates I went on with my wife was at the dear departed Gitlitz's on Manhattan's Upper West Side. But when it comes to delis in New York, I don't need to wax nostalgic. Though there are far fewer delis here than there once were, there are still enough excellent examples in Gotham that we maintain our status as America's preeminent Jewish-deli city. Some Los Angelenos insist that L.A. is a better deli city, but I believe they have simply spent too much time in the sun.
How do you judge a deli? To me there are clearly established yardsticks, pastrami or corned beef, soup (matzo ball or mushroom barley), and french fries. The quality of the cole slaw and the pickles matter as well.
Using those yardsticks, here is a list of my favorite delis in New York. Are there great Jewish delis outside New York? I love Langer's pastrami in Los Angeles, I've enjoyed many smoked-meat sandwich and french fry lunches at Schwartz's in Montreal, and my Baltimore friends swear by Attman's, but, Serious Eaters, I long to know of others around the country. Do tell.
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Posted by Ed Levine, October 19, 2007 at 6:43 PM
At El Quinto Pino chef-owner Alex Raij is making a room-temperature tomato soup that goes way beyond gazpacho. It's called salmorejo, hails from the city of Cordoba, and is as simple as simple can be: farm-stand tomatoes, salt, olive oil, and bread. She then puts a dollop of hardboiled egg and a little Serrano ham in the center of the bowl.
To make sure we get every last drop of the soup, she serves some toast points on the side to dip. Once you taste this soup you might never be able to go back to gazpacho again. Get to El Quinto Pino soon, because once the tomatoes stop coming to the Greenmarket in Union Square, there will be no salmorejo until next year.
El Quinto Pino
Address: 401 West 24th Street, New York NY 10011 (at Ninth Ave.)
Phone: 212-206-6900
Posted by Ed Levine, October 12, 2007 at 11:16 AM
Alidoro's namesake sandwich is so delicious I often find myself gravitating there even when I have no other reason to be in SoHo.
What's in it? Smoked chicken breast from Nodine's, arugula, and Alidoro (formerly Melampo) dressing.
When Alessandro Gualandi owned this picture-perfect sandwich shop, he would never tell me what was in his dressing, and I'm afraid new owner Walter Momente has been sworn to secrecy. I think it's a caper vinaigrette, but all you really need to know is that it's a delicious complement to the smoked chicken breast and the peppery arugula.
If you're looking for one of those over-stuffed cold Italian heroes the Alidoro is not it.
But if you're after a perfectly balanced sandwich with the right ratio of filling to bread the Alidoro is your kind of sandwich.
Alidoro
Address: 105 Sullivan Street, New York NY 10012 (b/n Spring and Prince)
Phone: 212-334-5179
Posted by Ed Levine, October 12, 2007 at 10:45 AM
This summer I was wandering around Harlem in search of superior pie and barbecue (I failed in both quests) when I happened upon a table filled with focaccia, baguettes, and tortillas at the Grassroots Market (145th and Edgecombe Avenue).
The tortillas were killer and the focaccia was pretty good, but I was most intrigued by the conversation I had with the woman selling the bread. Jessamyn Waldman had started the Hot Bread Kitchen as a "not for profit bakery and workforce development program for immigrant women." It is one of the "kitchen incubator" businesses described in a recent New York Times piece.
I've been so crazed for the last few months I haven't had a chance to tell you about Hot Bread Kitchen. Jessamyn and her crew are doing delicious, important work, and should be supported by serious eaters everywhere. Why? Read on.
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Posted by Ed Levine, October 10, 2007 at 5:59 AM
I wanted to love Luzzo's pizza. I really did. Atlanta pizza maniac Jeff Varsano raves about it, and I trust his pizza palate. I had heard many stories that it is frequented by Italian expats who come to kick back, have a glass of wine, eat some pizza, and watch Italian soccer games at the small dining room in the back of the restaurant facing the wood-and-charcoal-burning oven.
I hadn't been to Luzzo's since it first opened serving more traditional New York Italian-American pies, so I was very excited to finally be going back.
What I found was not what I expected.
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Posted by Ed Levine, October 4, 2007 at 12:00 PM
Before I set foot in the BBQ Chicken that just opened near Serious Eats world headquarters, I was as confused as anyone. A Korean company called BBQ Chicken with 3,500 locations in 37 countries was opening a fried chicken joint in New York?
Well, it turns out that BBQ stands for "Best of the Best Quality Chicken." Now you know, and after you finish reading this post, you will know something else: Based on my initial foray, BBQ Chicken serves some mighty fine fried chicken. All those millions of folks in 37 countries eating at BBQ's 3,500 locations, like Elvis fans, can't be wrong. They have been eating better quick service restaurant (QSR) fried chicken than we have.
And, if the company realizes its goal of opening 50,000 locations worldwide by 2020, I'd imagine that BBQ Chicken will be available nationwide here in the U.S. and that even more Serious Eaters will be able to try it and see if they agree with me. (McDonald's, by comparison, has a little more than 30,000 locations worldwide.)
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Posted by Ed Levine, October 1, 2007 at 5:20 PM
Adam Platt weighs in on two restaurants I have been to recently, Centro Vinoteca and Accademia di Vino.
My second meal at Centro Vinoteca was not up to the level of my first (rubbery truffled deviled eggs), though it was still pretty good (the place is deafeningly loud, on both levels). Accademia di Vino's menu was much too big, though the grilled pizza was tasty (though I think I saw a stack of pre-made pizza crusts in the kitchen), the Parmesan-prosciutto fritters rocked, and the pork porterhouse was delicious.
But after reading Platt's reviews, I feel like he missed a couple of things about Centro Vinoteca, though his description of the loungy scene and feel there is spot on.
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