Yesterday I certainly got my greens judging the 2009 Guactacular Invitational, though they were none the unsaturated fatty type. I can’t say how much I ate of the goopy goodness, but in attendance, more than 300 made it to the Bell House in Gowanus for the first-ever cook-off event.
So, there’s a swine flu, you say? Sure. I saw it all at Loki Lounge yesterday, in the form of sixteen tasty samples, and a throng of hungry carnivores. The Park Slope Pork-Off, it was called! And many familiar faces cooked up their best for this one-off event, a fundraiser for the charity Kamay at Puso.
And what a food-filled weekend! On Friday, the Hapa Kitchen hosted its first dinner soiree; Saturday, I saw so many foodies and inspiring panels at the Brooklyn Food Conference; Sunday, I got to taste the weekend-long efforts of so many cook-off enthusiasts at the Park Slope Pork-Off, which was hosted by one of our terrific Hapa Kitchen volunteers, Laurel, as a benefit for Kamay at Puso (a recap coming soon!); and today, the Hapa Kitchen website went live. I feel … Read More
It’s been fun trawling the Internet today for Earth Day-related articles and blog posts. There’s a lot of positive energy out there, and I’ve been seeing much murmering about how to eat more green, or garden more green, how to drink, or not drink, more green, even date more green. Even the prophet Pollan has spoken on this national holiday, with some urgent calls to action and praise for the rise in home gardening. But I thought I’d mention another … Read More
Guac and corn chips it is not. Plain-old hummus and pita it’s neither. Just as munchable as either of the above, I’d say definitely, as well as easy to prepare. It’s edamame, or soy beans, cooked and mashed up just like chickpea hummus (minus the tahini), and eggy wonton wrappers baked with a coating of oil and sesame seeds. And — with a little modification — it’s one of the four canapés that will precede the five-course dinner on May … Read More
It’s been a busy spring, and this holiday weekend I’m excited to finally share two projects that I’ve been cooking up. (When it rains, it pours!) First up is the Hapa Kitchen, a supper club and collaborative cooking project co-founded with my friend and frequent kitchen comrade, chef Akiko Moorman. To kick off its launch, we’re proud to be working with Queens County Farm Museum for a local lamb-based benefit dinner on May 1st, or May Day.
It’s here: the 2nd Annual Risotto Challenge! Last spring, eighteen contestants answered this call-to-cooking action with imaginative risottos seemingly spawned while on crack. (The ultimate winner? A citrusy, brown rice “Scarborough Fair” ordeal, named for its profusion of four singsong herbs.) And since there’s never an end to variations on the delicious dish, co-host Karol Lu and I are giving the cook-off another spin — or stir. This time, the event will benefit Just Food, New York City’s local and … Read More
To all those tired of the pork belly and bacon food fad, I’ve got bad news for you. It’s far from over. Anyone who might have walked within a one-block radius of Radegast Biergarten in Williamsburg sometime between 4:45-7pm yesterday would have seen the hoards of hungry bacon lovers lining up outside the bar (“Is this for the bacon festival?” I heard a lot of). When I arrived at the time the first-ever Bacon Takedown officially began there, 5pm, that … Read More
Thanks to fourteen chowders, it was warm and clammy in the back room of Jimmy’s No. 43 on Saturday. Fifteen, if you counted the pot of Manhattan-style chowder that the restaurant’s resident chefs cooked up as extra, which was still going strong by the end of the event and made a perfect straggler second-course. But the real battle was fought by the amateurs. This time, the cook-off community of NYC was drawn a wildcard dish du jour: chowder. And a … Read More
I do love a new cook-off! Tomorrow, a smattering of home chefs will be bringing their best to Jimmy’s No. 43 in celebration of local, sustainable and artisanal foods which New Amsterdam Market vigorously supports, and winter’s favorite soup: chowder. There may be few parameters on what makes a chowder just that, but no one can argue that the best chowders are usually chock full of chunks, every spoonful of the stuff a claustrophobic array of deliciousness. And that’s probably … Read More