If you can ever find this stuff, do yourself a favor…it’s a treat not to miss.

Just ask David Lebovitz.

Such was the poignant wisdom of my old college chum, Lomain. That was his line, right out of “The Pope of Greenwich Village,” ‘cept out of Bayside, Queens. This is Beef Lomain I’m talking about, the eldest Lomain. His brother Mikey was Chicken Lomain and his little brother Matty was Shrimp Lomain.

I’d like to see A.J. take a piece for himself tonight, wouldn’t you?

Why mince words? Let’s Go Yan-Kees!

While we wait for the Yanks to play tonight, we’ve got football and football means:

Happy Sundaze.

[Picture by J. Parthum]

The Times does homemade potato chips.

It’s been chilly the past few nights here in New York. October baseball is in the air for Yankee fans and I’m here to tell you that it feels good to be so spoiled. For years my sense memory informed me to get anxious in this weather which meant the start of school. Now, it’s been replaced by a luxurious feeling–the Yankees and the playoffs. It is a sensation that I cannot take for granted.

Now that autumn is fast approaching the summer bounty is running dry. No more corn, just a few precious tomatoes left. These here were grown on a rooftop in Manhattan. August is my favorite time of year for food and I’m always sorry to see it go, but take comfort in the fact that it’ll return next year. And when it arrives again, just like when the Yanks make the playoffs, I’ll appreciate every last moment.

What’s your favorite food to get from a cart?

Vampires need not apply.

Serious Eats with the skinny on black garlic:

What is the stuff? It’s simply garlic that’s been left to ferment for about a month until the cloves turn soft, gummy, and black and the papery exterior withers and browns. The details of the process are a trade secret, but involve careful regulation of heat and humidity to keep the garlic aged, rather than, well, rotten. The result is a clove with the sweetness and texture of roasted garlic and a funky, fermented twang reminiscent of molasses and kimchi. The cloves can be eaten raw and have none of the sulfurous bite of unfermented garlic.

The black garlic PR team says you can use it wherever you’d use plain garlic, but those recipes can get a little Mad Lib for my tastes. I prefer it in applications where black garlic’s unique qualities can shine through. It’s great raw or puréed for salads and dips, where raw garlic would overwhelm everything else. Its complex sweetness beats the pants off roasted garlic, making an interesting and time-saving alternative to spreads and mashed dishes.

Big CC Going for win number 20…

Batter Up:

Serve ’em up fresh, CC.

Let’s Go Yan-Kees!

The questions remains…

Look Back in Hunger

By Guest Author: Greg W. Prince

How is it we crave what we haven’t tasted in 40 years? How is it I’ll be doing anything and suddenly be overcome by a desire for a grilled cheese sandwich from the Beach Burger in Long Beach?

A quick Googling shows Beach Burger is still up and running on the South Shore of Nassau County, or at least it’s there again. It changed names at least once during my youth. I would assume it changed hands a few times. Since I don’t live that far away, I could conceivably drag myself over there and seek that grilled cheese sandwich, but I can’t imagine it would be the same.

Besides, I can only imagine eating it across the street. And I can’t imagine doing that.

My experience with the Beach Burger grilled cheese sandwich that intermittently returns to my subconscious did not take place at the Beach Burger proper. It happened on the other side of the city’s main thoroughfare, known alternately as Park Street (commonly) or Park Avenue (officially and a little fancily). It happened at Franco Fanelli. That wasn’t a pizza parlor, to use the term no one uses anymore. It was, if you will, a clip joint.

Specifically, they clipped hair there — my mother’s hair. Franco Fanelli was a beauty salon…more often referred to as a beauty parlor (whatever happened to parlors, anyway?). Going to the beauty parlor was a big deal to my mother, big enough so that when she had an appointment and had to schlep her seven-year-old son, the sense of occasion was extended by ordering in lunch. It wasn’t just my mother doing that. They did it for all the ladies.

All my life going to barber shops it never occurred to me eat around falling follicles. But that’s what they did at Franco Fanelli. I suppose it was as much a social outing as a hair care event.

Me, I’m sitting off to the side somewhere. It’s a terrible place for a seven-year-old. There’s gabbing and industrial-strength hair dryers blasting away and enough hair spray in the air to make Love Canal seem pristine by comparison. When you entered Long Beach, you were greeted by a billboard that welcomed you to America’s Healthiest City.

(more…)

Banana bread gets no respect.

Dig this found treasure from Mon Appetit.

About Last Night…

This girl is the Vanessa Del Rio of food pern.

There’s a fun post up at Serious Eats on Desert-Island Pantry Staples. I’ll go with a good bottle of olive oil and a good bottle of wine vinegar, Maldon salt and Sriracha, Tazo Awake tea and a jar of red current jelly for starters. What you got?

That cool, refreshing drink.

From the cool blog, Former Chef.

From Mario Batali and his partner, Joe Bastianich, comes Eataly, a huge-new Italian Market down on 23rd street. It opened last week. My aunt and uncle went down on Friday. She sent me this e-mail after they arrived: “It looks good, maybe, but you’ve never seen so many people in your life; worse than Times Square on New Year’s Eve. Judgment reserved. Off to eat somewhere else.”

Simple. Light. Tasty. From Whats Gaby Cooking:

Check out this tasty-looking pesto from Lucullian Delights:

David Lebovitz takes a food tour of New York.

Dig in.

When in doubt, turn to Jacques:

Man, name a website, userealbutter.com and it’s a sure bet I’m going to enjoy what it has to offer. And that ain’t the half. Just dig their recipe page.

Now, check this blueberry-peach crisp and enjoy.

[Photo by Kitchenography]