Black Bean Enchiladas with Red Chile
It’s been a bit of a painful withdrawal from eating out at Alma, a restaurant which dealt no gimmicks except for meticulous flavors, as apparent in their exuberant new Mexican chile sauce.
Report from Jamaica
ackee fruit My brother just came back from visiting his girlfriend who’s interning in Kingston, Jamaica for the summer. It sounds like a pretty groovy way to build your resume, but considering it was in the city’s public health administration, it may have been a little more involved than buying shell necklaces and lounging on the beach listening to reggae. I wish I had more to tell about an area I find really fascinating, but since I wasn’t there I … Read More
Curry Chicken Leftover Salad
This was a really simple way of using up some chicken I had roasted the other day when it was raining. I’m not sure why that makes sense, but buying a whole chicken and sticking it in the oven with herbs and lemon tucked under its skin was simply the answer to a not very gentle evening’s weather, after a not very relaxing day at work. The little bugger didn’t have very much meat left on its bones after some … Read More
Songs in the Key of Lime (Tostitos)
Wow. The other night I experienced a serious lapse in fun, urban foodie-ness and instead became Homer Simpson. I wouldn’t say it was an all-time low, but it involved eating a dinner of beer and half a bag of Tostitos hint of lime flavored chips. I’m feeling the pain. I came home from work to find three friends jamming away on instruments in my tight living room. Cut to many songs sung, many beer bottles downed, a few hours later, … Read More
Young Pickles and Cold Sesame Noodles
Are every woman’s two best summer pals. The kind of friends you forget to call once the season’s over, and almost, regrettably, forget they exist by the time it starts over again. Then you call them like it’s their job to hang out with you, all at once. Poor young pickles and cold sesame noodles! You don’t ever bring them out with you unless you’re going to a barbeque. You are so very selfish.
Reason for Not Eating Out in New York #1: Gimmicks
One of the reasons I don’t eat out anymore: gimmicks that restaurants think are worth a damn but that even the staff doesn’t expect you to buy into. I went to The Living Room last night to see one of my favorite local bands, Matty Charles and the Valentines, who was playing with Austin and Kristin, and Gloria Deluxe. Austin and Kristin totally blew me away. They sounded more polished and professional than anything I’ve seen live in a long … Read More
Summer Corn and Roasted Red Pepper Risotto
Fresh corn on the cob that squirts you in the face when you snap it in half is just what I was in the mood for when I went to the Fairway Market in Red Hook this weekend. Unfortunately, the two ears I’d gotten with the thought of making corn chowder stayed in my fridge for two days. By Monday it was pretty clear that I wasn’t going to make a hot soup in August, as much as I could … Read More
Cherry Walnut Bruschetta
The great thing about summer is that I can buy produce, well fruit at least, outside my office building from a fruit stand vendor. I have no idea where he trucks his fruit in, but it’s probably somewhere closer than where the average grocery store gets them given how firm and juicy the fruit is. And I love seeing them use those simple scoop-bottomed scales–always so human. Although the figs looked tempting, I opted for some dark, ruby-red cherries because, … Read More
Shark Under Attack
More on the topic of eating rays and shark-like things, Yao Ming recently stepped up to the plate (darn, wrong sport!) on the topic of wildlife preservation, vowing not to eat shark fin soup. He joins environmentalists who condemn the overfishing of sharks, whose fins are mainly prepared in the traditional, highly expensive delicacy in Chinese cuisine, shark fin soup. Eating shark fin soup has, for thousands of years, denoted a status of wealth and prestige, commonly served at weddings … Read More