To the BBQ and cook-off nation: A call to tongs! Slow Food NYC and The Good Beer Seal are hosting a benefit grill-off at Harry’s Water Taxi Beach Long Island City on July 21st, 6-9pm. This event is all about location, location, location: instead of focusing on a certain ingredient or dish, cook-off contestants must use locally-sourced foods and be prepared to tell which farms they got their grub from. There’ll be more food to go around than theirs, too, with chefs from Fette Sau, Fatty Cue, Rub BBQ, Gusto and Jimmy’s No. 43 serving feasts from local farms. The event is the crown jewel of Good Beer Month, just declared of July by the mayor himself. So Sixpoint Craft Ales will be sold to the masses along with the regular potions at the Water Taxi Beach bar. With numerous organizations participating, rivers of beer, beats by Finger on the Pulse, and twenty amateur chefs vying for the favor of food-celebrity judges, it’ll be a locavore luau like none other, and quite possibly the cook-off to end all cook-offs (just kidding!). All proceeds from the event benefit Slow Food NYC, and it’s $35 to get in and eat all you can. Get your tickets now. Read the rest of this entry »
I received a mildly annoying press release in my inbox the other day: “Picnic food safety greater concern in hot weather” was the subject line (food bloggers out there, you get that, too?). The draconian yarn went on to provide tips to curb food-borne bacteria, which hot weather accelerates. As bringing homemade food to a sunny patch of grass outdoors is one of my all-time favorite activities, I felt that it was oddly singling out picnics as some sort of summer safety threat. And as someone pretty well-versed in cross-contamination and keeping my hands and food clean, found the tips somewhat vapid, while alarmist. “Picnic foods typically require a lot of handling, and the more foods are handled the greater the risk of contamination,” the announcement read. Run for the hills! Or rather, the bistro down the street! Read the rest of this entry »
The Unfancy Food Show, a celebration of local, artisanal food and tastemakers, has enacted its third triumphant year at the East River Bar in Williamsburg on Sunday. Launched by Tom Mylan and Sasha Davies as the underdog fest to the Fancy Food Show, also taking place this weekend, the festival has become an unique tradition of its own, and popular attraction for die-hard foodies and drop-in neophytes alike to meet and eat. I wish there was one every weekend. Read the rest of this entry »
Goodness, did I cook a lot of whole animals this past week. First it was the glorious goat spit for The Greenhorns. Then Tuesday was the Hapa Kitchen’s third dinner, “Paris of the East,” featuring a fusion of French and Chinese cuisines — and lots of duck, duck, and more duck (no goose). We dressed the dining room with Chinese lanterns, flowers and curling garlic scapes, put on some Django Rhinehart and the soundtrack to In the Mood For Love, wrote menus on the backs of Chinese poster art prints from the 1930s (of girls in high-collar chipao dresses), poured five different wines from Wolffer Estate, sourced vegetables from nearby Sang Lee Farms, and cooked nine six and a half-pound ducks from D’Artagnan. It’s taken me a bit of time getting myself out of this “mood.” To be perfectly honest, I could stay there for a while. Read the rest of this entry »
A room filled with the scent of garlic-infused olive oil. A warm oven that sputters with the occasional spillover of sauce inside. A cutting board of cheeses within easy reach. Fresh basil aflutter. Beer. Several able-stomached friends. There are few things more soothing than a pizza party in someone’s home. And while almost any toppings for these treats suffice, there are likely few things more satisfying to a garlic lover than this saturated slice. Read the rest of this entry »
Get your goat fix! Tomorrow, rain or shine, a block party takes place in Carroll Gardens to benefit the Greenhorns, a Hudson Valley-based non-profit that promotes and recruits young farmers. This event is just too packed with stuff to really fit on a poster, or a proper blog post. But there will be a screening of the trailer for the documentary about young farmers by Greenhorns founder Severine von Tscharner Fleming, also called The Greenhorns, a performance by Reverend Billy, an urban gardening workshop led by Ben and Annie of the Eagle Street Rooftop Farm, an auction, farming and animal raising demos, and a bike-powered spit rotating baby goats for savory sandwiches. The organizers promise a few more surprises. I’ll be there, too, helping to feed the masses. Read the rest of this entry »
At the first-ever Curry Takedown, that is! And what a blend of spices we ate and smelled on Sunday. Forget the phrase curry in a hurry, these chefs were none to take the easy road, drop a Golden Curry cube into their pot and let it spread. What I saw was really a work of slow-simmered art — a United Nations of Currydom, convened at the Loki Lounge in Park Slope. Read the rest of this entry »
Time to roll out the red cartons — strawberries are in season. And local strawberries, especially those from my CSA farm, are a real treat to start the summer off with. If it weren’t for these bursting-sweet nuggets of bright red, I’d never be able to make this shake half as good. No “five dollar shake” with milk and ice cream for me, please. This one’s just milk, fruit, basil and ice. Read the rest of this entry »
If April showers bring May flowers, then June showers bring July… peppers! Zucchini! Tomatoes, purple string beans and strawberries! And okay, more flowers, too. And that’s just the beginning of what’s in store as summer harvest time approaches at Stone Barns Center For Food and Agriculture.
I recently heard a local farmer recommend to anyone wanting to volunteer at a farm, “Don’t go in July and August,” – when it’s all nice out and everything’s coming out of the soil like crazy. Go from April to June or so – essentially, now. I can’t say this is exactly why I went to Stone Barns to roll up my sleeves and help plant this week, though. The reason I went was fairly simple: it’s Stone Barns, and I’d never been there before. Read the rest of this entry »
A hapa holy trinity? Hey, there’s a first for everything. Sweet and pungent (coleslaw), smoky and spicy (beans), and some of the aforementioned with savory with herbal tossed in (potato salad), these were the flavors that drenched the side dishes at our Hapa Kitchen BBQ on Saturday. Unfortunately, I did not have my camera on hand that day; if I’d had it, I would not have had a clean hand to use it. Therefore, this photo is stolen from Robert Sietsema’s recap of the meal in Village Voice’s food blog. (The three sides are pictured on the bottom half of the very stylish paper plate.) Read the rest of this entry »
