Posted by Ed Levine, July 15, 2008 at 1:15 PM
A couple of months ago Ed Levine Eats morphed into Serious Eats: New York. There were just too many delicious things to eat in the Big Apple we weren't covering because I didn't have the time or the stomach capacity. So I decided to unleash the force of many other New York-based serious eaters to cover as much deliciousness as we could eat and drink.
We thought there was a need for a never-ending search for deliciousness in New York, and apparently you agreed, because our community has grown tremendously in that time. You loved Kathy Chan's search for the perfect ice cream sandwich, Gordon Mark's quest for the perfect bowl of noodles in Chinatown, and our attempt to identify all the New York-based food icons in Grand Theft Auto IV. I loved it, too. How could you not?
But we realized there was some unfinished business to attend to. Even though Serious Eats: New York was its own entity, it looked like the Serious Eats front page. That blurred the lines a little too much, and we saw that people were missing some great entries on SE:NY in the confusion.
So we're proud to relaunch Serious Eats: New York with a new design that matches the energy of the great food city we're reporting on. We hope this will help you find all the best eats in New York. In addition to the blog, which is now located at newyork.seriouseats.com, there is also a Serious Eats: New York Talk section, where you can start your own discussions and chew the fat with other serious eaters in New York. And we'll be sending out the first Serious Eats: New York newsletter at the end of the week—if you haven't signed up to receive it yet, get on that now. Thanks for making Serious Eats: New York such a quick success, and we look forward to hearing from all of you in the comments of all our posts!
Posted by Zach Brooks, July 11, 2008 at 2:00 PM
Submissions from ultraclay of sausage at Radegast Hall in Williamsburg, and from foodinmouth of a cheeseburger at James in Prospect Heights.
Since launching Photograzing last week, we've received hundreds of submissions, and while we love drooling over grilled peaches, panini sliders, and jalapeno cheddar cornbread from all over, sometimes we just want to physically eat them!
That's where you come in.
Attention all New York food mavens: if you're eating seriously delicious things, homemade or from a restaurant (or a parking lot, we don't care), we want to see them. All in hopes of rushing over to these sources and grabbing them too, or whipping them up in our apartment kitchens—whatever the case my be!
If you're ready to upload to Photograzing, it's super easy. All you need is a Serious Eats account, and if you don't have one already, quit procrastinating, friend. It doesn't take much longer than making toast.
Posted by The Serious Eats Team, July 2, 2008 at 2:00 PM
As much as we’d like to, there are times during the day when can’t actually eat something delicious. At those moments, then, we have to resort to the next best thing—looking at delicious food.
Photograzing is a place to share your best food photography, discover new food blogs, and find tasty inspiration. Whether it’s ideas for tonight’s dinner, some eye candy to help you procrastinate, or just a lively connection to the community of food-lovers on the web, we hope you’ll find this new food photography site a staple of your online diet.
Learn more about Photograzing or go and start sharing your delicious New York food photos!
Posted by Ed Levine, May 19, 2008 at 6:00 PM
In the last couple of weeks you might have noticed we've been doing things a little differently at Ed Levine Eats. What was once my personal blog focusing mostly on New York food has become a group endeavor devoted to helping serious eaters find everything delicious in New York City. Welcome to Serious Eats New York!
Dishing Deliciousness, Not Dirt
New York is filled with great food websites and blogs, like Eater, Grub Street, and The Strong Buzz, all of which we love for their up-to-the-minute reports on openings, closings, and the comings-and-goings of top-name chefs. But Serious Eats New York is all about the never-ending pursuit of the delicious. We're going to keep the gossip to a minimum here and focus instead on where to get tasty eats. Ruth Reichl once called me the "Missionary of the Delicious" in the New York Times, and that's an epithet the whole team takes seriously. Our goal is to provide you with all the information you need to maximize the deliciousness quotient in your life. Here's how this is new:
Continue reading »
Posted by Ed Levine, October 16, 2006 at 6:26 AM
In the movie "Dirty Dancing" there's a great moment when Jerry Orbach,
"Baby's" (Jennifer Gray) father, apologizes to Patrick Swayze for falsely accusing him of impregnating an old girlfriend. Orbach says to Swayze:
"When I'm wrong I say I'm wrong." In an effort to emulate Orbach I say this to Tim Zagat: When I'm wrong, I say I'm wrong. A Serious Eats reader who worked for Tim and Nina informed me that "while I can say many disparaging things about Zagat, but I'll tell you this: Tim takes those ratings as serious as a heart attack." There are indeed many things to take issue with regarding the Zagat ratings, but apparently my charge on Friday isn't one of them. I stand corrected.
Posted by Ed Levine, September 20, 2006 at 10:57 AM
A respected food critic who may want to maintain his anonymity just e-mailed me that the BLT at Frankies is out-f'ing-standing (his words, not mine).
I may go check it out today or tomorrow.
Posted by Ed Levine, September 11, 2006 at 1:27 PM
I know which way I'm voting, but I don't want to affect the results. Cast your vote now
Posted by Ed Levine, August 14, 2006 at 8:42 AM
It's tomato season here in the produce-challenged northeast, which for me means it's BLT season.
I am relentless in my BLT-making. Today I served my 85 year-old cousin Terry (I don't think she has a cholesterol problem) a BLT for lunch, made from two absolutely amazing heirloom tomatoes I bought at my local greenmarket yesterday, superior Nueske's bacon, Hellman's mayonnaise, a Pullman loaf (an excellent white bread with a nice chewy crust) from a local French bakery, and, yes, some baby arugula.
I only served the baby arugula in deference to my cousin Terry, who would have seen my leaving out the lettuce as unnecessarily revisionist. But over the last month or so I have been assembling "BTs" for myself, my son Will and my wife Vicky, and not once has anyone complained about the absence of the "L".
THE LETTUCE IS SUPERFLOUS IN A BLT.
There. I said it. I feel much better now. The bacon gives you smoky, porky, slightly sweet flavor, the tomato is sweet, juicy and lends just a touch of needed acid to the sandwich, the Hellman's mayo is creamy and rich, and the Pullman loaf's crusty edge gives you the crisp crunch some would say the lettuce provides.
Am I crazy? Is this food heresy?
Posted by Ed Levine, June 23, 2006 at 7:42 AM
My friend Arthur Schwartz, who knows more than anyone (Italian or American) about Neapolitan food (yes, he did write the book (Naples at Table), will be conducting three free one-hour cooking and eating workshops on July 6, 7 and 8 at the offices of Regione Campania in Manhattan, 4 E. 54th Street (enter through the Kiton store). To register go to Arturo's website, which also currently has a terrific piece on Italian food and ingredients (and a great fava beans and potato recipe) by the Food Maven himself.
Posted by Ed Levine, May 3, 2006 at 7:27 AM
Looking for a place to eat in New York for a certain occasion? Are you headed to Paris and want to know where to eat when you get there? Going to Frisco and want to know where to get the best Crab or Shrimp Louie salad?
Type in a question in the Ask Ed! section and I will do my best to become Your Food Advisor. I may just link you to what I think is a website that offers the best, most trustworthy food advice. Or I might e-mail one of my trusted food friends scattered all over the country and ask them to help you out. One way or another, I'll do my best to make sure you eat well wherever you are. You gotta eat. It might as well be good.
Photo courtesy of raven.air-nifty.com
Posted by Ed Levine, April 29, 2006 at 2:01 AM
I had no idea my post on Dirty Bird would generate such a firestorm of protest. One of the many things I love about blogging is that I can post a first impression and then post again when and if my return visit to Dirty Bird yields better results. That is why I ended my previous post by saying that maybe the kitchen was having an off day. When I write for the Times I don't have that luxury. Peter pointed that out in one of the many responses I got to my original post .
As far as Allison's response I can only reiterate my admiration for her as a chef and as a human being. I said as much in my original post in an effort to make sure that everyone understands my intent here. I just want her chicken to be up to her standards as well as mine.
Dolly and a number of other people also pointed out something else profoundly important. If we read or hear about a fried chicken place being opened by a renowned chef, can't we assume that when that chef opens the doors that the chicken is going to be ready for prime time. If the chicken was going to be a work in progress, perhaps we should have been given a discount. Certain restaurants have offered a 25% discount for the first month while they iron the kinks out.
The Fried Chicken at Dirty Bird to Go is not cheap, and I understand why. Good ingredients cost more. But if you're going to charge full price as soon as you open, then it's only fair for eaters and writers to assume that the food is going to be as good as it can be at the get go.
I'll be returning to Dirty Bird to Go in the near future, and I look forward to sharing my impressions with all of you. I hope I have to eat my words along with some delicious fried chicken. I invite all of you to eat some bird at Dirty Bird to Go and tell me what you think. Let's hope that in the near future that Dirty Bird is the word.
Posted by Ed Levine, April 27, 2006 at 7:28 PM
I'm going to be hosting WOR's Food Talk today from 11-noon. That's 710 on your AM dial. I'll be chewing the fat with my fellow pizza and burger lover Adam Kuban and the dashing fellow behind Eater, the dapper man about town Ben Leventhal. We'll be chatting about food blogs, Morimoto, restaurants in general, burgers, pizza and anything else that comes to mind. I'm also going to see if Julie Powell, the author of Julie and Julia, the best-selling book that started as a blog, can join the fracas. So give us a call at 800-321-0710.
Then right after the show I'm heading to Dirty Bird to Go, which according to the manager I spoke to last night, opened five days ago. I guess people like the fried chicken there because when I passed by around 7:30 they were closed because they had run out of food. I guess you could say that all the dirty birds had flown the coop.
Adam Kuban photo courtesy of gothamist.com
Posted by Ed Levine, April 26, 2006 at 12:48 AM
I neglected to credit Jessica, the creator of sugoodsweets.com for the great chocolate chip cookie photo I used in my upper west side April 23 post below. My humblest apologies, Jessica. Her blog is a a lot of fun, and to pay penance I may have to order some of her cookies.
Posted by Ed Levine, January 4, 2006 at 1:24 PM
Hey, everybody, today Wednesday January 4th I'm going to be hosting Food Talk on New York's WOR 710 am on your radio dial, from 11:00 am to noon Eastern time. I'm going to be talking about food blogging with my friend, Food and Wine Magazine columnist Pete Wells, along with recipes, neighborhood bakeries, restaurants, and anything else listeners want to call in and chat about. The number to call is 800-321-0710.
Posted by Ed Levine, November 30, 2005 at 1:37 PM
I admit it. I've gotten fat. I was a fat kid, and I got even fatter in college. Of course I tried the Atkins diet in college, and I did lose a lot of weight, but I also came down with what I believe is the only known case of scurvy in this country in the last fifty years because I stopped eating citrus fruits, as the late doc atkins instructed me to do, and I neglected to take the vitamin c he suggested.
After college I came to New York and worked in the music business. I succeeded in losing 65 pounds right after I got to Gotham, and I managed to keep it off until I started writing about food.
Now, thirty years after I took off all that weight, I find myself at a similar weight crossroads. I weigh even a little more than I weighed in college, and I hate myself for it. I tell myself it's impossible to be a food writer and lose weight, but that's bullshit.
So I am embarking on my own personal weight-loss program based on everything I've read in recent years.
I'm going to focus on eating lots of protein and vegetables and limit my carbohydrate intake. The carbs I'll eat will be whole grains and fruits like apples and pears. I will try to limit my fat intake to good fats like olive oil as much as possible, though I know I can't go off bacon cold turkey. Lastly, I am going to practice portion control and I am desperately going to try to avoid stupid, wasteful calories like potato chips and cheap, bad cookies, which don't even taste good.
Oh, yeah, I'm going to try to limit my peanut butter intake significantly. I can go through a jar in three days if I don't watch it.
I already play squash three times a week, and I am going to try to do something else two days a week, either swim or use an elliptical trainer.
I'm too embarrassed to tell all of you what I weigh now, but suffice to say I need to lose forty pounds minimum. I will keep all of you abreast of my progress every three days. I don't think I can deal with getting on the scale every day.
Sincerely,
Your fat food writer.
