Two summers ago it was a bar on Columbia St., at the “edge of Cobble Hill,” called the B61 that I went to every spare happy hour I had and ordered a tall pint glass of bartender Jamie’s magnificent Bloody Marys. Two parts homemade Bloody Mary mix heavy on the horseradish, one part vodka, a splash of Guinness straight from the tap, spice seasoning on the rim of the glass, cracked black pepper at the bottom, three olives speared with … Read More
Beware, I’m about to make an indie rock reference (or is it too oldschool to be indie?): Anyone remember the song, “Swordfish” by the Dead Milkmen? Its lyrics essentially consist of the chorus, “I believe in swordfish/He believes in swordfish,” and it tells you nothing of swordfish except for the fact that everyone believes in something, and he believes in swordfish. Understandably so, as it would now seem.
My Grandma Erway, may her soul rest in peace, wasn’t someone I thought I’d ever be taking cooking cues from. In her golden years, she often remarked on never enjoying the pesky task of cooking, and was relieved to let others take the wheel on occasions like Thanksgiving. She introduced me to Newberg, and badly. I didn’t know if Newberg existed outside of her kitchen for many confused years, having only encountered it as chunks of artificially colored fishcake drowned … Read More
Who says the Fourth of July can’t be red, white, green, yellow, orange, purple and blue? This quick chip and dip snack is an easy fix for barbecue-bringing, and it can be improvised with almost any veggies you might have on hand. Sure, it might not look as bright and pretty in that abstract expressionist painting way as a strictly veggies-only salsa, but white beans go a long way and sure do make one smooth, almost creamy base.
“You go, girl. Yeah, have that extra scoop of ice cream. Damn straight. You made it, after all.” That’s my chorus of you-go-girl girls in the back of my mind. They like to cheer, so I try to give them every opportunity to. They can be so feisty if I don’t: “I hope you enjoyed every minute of throwing away your quarters to skee-ball all night. And what was that whole margarita thing after 5 drinks for? Do you NEED … Read More
Announcing the first one-off food blogging event on Not Eating Out in New York: That Crazy Kitchen Gadget. Rules are simple: 1. Identify your crazy, obscure, mysterious, ineffective, obsolete or completely awesome kitchen gadget and remember to photograph it or at least describe it well in your post. 2. Cook a dish using the same crazy kitchen gadget. Provide recipe and photographs in your post. Remember to mention the name of this contest and blog in your post, and link … Read More
Hear me out: I acknowledge global warming. I am sitting in my apartment with two fans on glued to this chair and have ice cubes in my cheeks like a squirrel hoarding nuts. Did they say global humidifying is upon us as well, or is it just these couple of days we’re having in the hellishly hot tri-state area?
Remember how I told you that at the end of June, the berries in Prospect Park were due to be ripe for the picking? Apparently not, since you’ve left me bushes full of them. Or — perhaps — I suppose I could have tried to describe where in the park these bushes were. Ah well. My oversight. Tee-hee. Speaking of crops in the unlikeliest of big cities, I’m fascinated by this BBC News article, which describes a “vertical farming” project … Read More
I’m taking Arthur’s advice this month and eating plenty of asparagus while they’re in season. In fact, I owe so much to the erudite and challenging wisdom he’s extended me that I had even considered blending this vegetable with strawberries (the other food he mentioned is best in June) in a salad, and took this idea for a good mental romp in the park, but ultimately, I chickened out on the big kid slide. For now.
photo courtesy of Amelia at Marination In continuation of my partially slanted, incomplete task of describing the NYC Food Film Festival a couple of weeks ago on this blog, last weekend I did my homework and got the scoop on the first-ever fest for The Reeler.