I just happened to be downtown last night, looking for a quick bite, when I realized I was near the Milk Bar. So I stopped in–it was crowded–and ordered the pork buns. A $9 treat. I stood there and savored every bite, knowing I shouldn’t eat too fast, knowing they’d be gone all too soon. But I couldn’t help myself.
And it was worth it.
[Photo Credit: Momfuku for 2]
Albert Brooks used to tell a joke about disk jockeys. He said it was a proven fact that the worst three kinds of people in the world were: incurable lepers, disk jockeys, curable lepers. Said it was a scientific fact, not opinion. Well, I think of this joke whenever I see or read about celebrity chefs who make a good replacement for disk jockeys. I’ve got a friend who thinks that celebrity chefs are one of the most obnoxious cultural trends in years. And I’d be hard-pressed to argue even though I minor in food nerdary.
Anthony Bourdain is an interesting case beacause I can’t tell if I like him or not. His memoir “Kitchen Confidential” made him a celebrity (and if you ever want to convince someone not to to be a chef, look no further). I don’t know that anyone would call him a chef anymore, he’s a food celebrity. But he’s arrogant, funny, hip, full of rock n roll rage and viciousness, not to mention self-parody. And he cares about food.
Bourdain has a new book of essays out and I enjoyed the review of it in the Times Book Review last weekend.
Dig.
[Photo Credit: The Frosting]
I can’t live without salad. Crave it more than chocolate. When I was growing up, we had to help my mom make dinner or clear the table and wash the dishes. Cooking was always more appealing and we usually had a salad every night so I became the salad guy (although my brother’s got salade skills too).
Hmmm, what’ll I have fer lunch?
[Photo Credit: Last Night’s Dinner]
Okay, so this one’s from Katz’s Deli downtown not the Carnegie. They make a better pastrami anyhow, still one of the very few places that slices the pastrami by hand which allows for all the fatty goodness.
Speaking of which, my brother used to go to the 2nd Avenue Deli with my old man all the time. One time, they sat down and dad started in on the complimentary cole slaw. He was a fast talker and a fast eater. He started to choke on the salad just as the waiter arrived. My brother ordered two pastrami sandwiches while the Old Man, eyes wet, face red, downed a glass of water. Before he finished drinking he held up his hand to the waiter. Put the glass down, out-of-breath, and said, “Fatty.”
[Photo Credit: Rachelleb.com]
George always did like his ice cream…
My friend Alex took me to Grand Sichuan last Friday night, his local Sichuan jernt of cherce. I liked it so much I took Emily the next day. Mostly, so I could have this dish, cucumber salad with scallion sauce, again:
The dressing, from what I could tell, consists of scallion puree, sesame oil, salt and sugar. Man, is it ever tasty. Worth the trip. So is the cumin beef dish (a most curious but delicious experience) and the pork soup dumplings.
[Photo Credit: Serious Eats]
I was cruisin’ around Saveur’s website and saw this:
From a most delicious blog called Joy the Baker.
Check, check it out.
It reached 103 degrees in New York yesterday. It’s supposed to hit 98 today.
Man, it’s too hot to think about food. I just wish I was near a pool so’s I could do the Nestea Plunge:
Okay, you want something healthy? Dig this tasty-looking tomato, mozzarella and farro salad from food52. Food goddess Jennifer Hess (who writes the devastatingly delicious site, Last Night’s Dinner) gave it a try and liked it muchly.
Over at the New York Times, Harold Mcgee writes that the secret to ribs is already in the kitchen: the oven. Peep, don’t sleep. And here are some more ideas for the grill…
[Photo Credit: A Yankee in a Southern Kitchen]
Cool like a cucumber, that’s how we roll in the summertime.
There’s all sorts of ways to flip cucumbers (here’s a recipe for the salad picture above). When I used to wait tables the Amigos in the kitchen would slice cucumbers and sprinkle salt and chili powder on them, followed by a squeeze of lemon. It’d be a macho thing to see how much chili powder you could stand.
I usually have ’em plain with some kosher salt.
