It’s a Slow Food Grill-Off at the Water Taxi Beach

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, … Read More

It Smells Like Curry In Here!

posted in: Cook-Offs, Events, Recipes | 6

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.

The Brooklyn Beer Experiment: Success!

posted in: Cook-Offs, Events | 16

So we all knew that Brooklyn knows how to cook… off. But what of home beer brewing? Turns out that these are some mean streets for that trade, too. And we wouldn’t have known it if it hadn’t been for the Brooklyn Beer Experiment, the brainchild of two of my favorite cook-off fanatics, Nick and Theo. Joining forces, these once-rivals from many a local cook-off (just look at their resumes) decided to host a joint beer and food competition. Unlike … Read More

The Risotto Challenge ’09

How to say… thanks? For coming out to serve delicious, unique and inspired food, for eating and enjoying the fruits of everyone’s labor, for lending your discerning criticism of said dishes as an audience member or one of the expert judges, for donating your money to Just Food, and for essentially making Karol and myself’s dream come true. From the bottom of our butter-clogged hearts, thanks to all for Risotto Challenging it up yesterday at Jimmy’s No. 43. Especially to … Read More

A Risotto Challenge Sneak Preview

posted in: Cook-Offs, NYC Events | 2

Last Tuesday’s Dining section in the New York Times said it all: “Cook-off mania has taken hold in New York,” Steven Stern wrote in the article that many have written to congratulate me on being mentioned in. Thanks so much! A “sizzle of triumph,” indeed! And judging from the proliferation of amateur bake-offs, pork-offs, guac-offs, tofu-offs and other organized food fights lately, the statement couldn’t be more true. For a while there, I’d thought cook-off mania had only taken hold … Read More

Green Tea Coconut Mini Cupcakes (official losing entry of the Brooklyn Kitchen Cupcake Cook-Off)

Now if only I could miniaturize myself after this string of cook-offs the past two weeks. Brooklyn Kitchen‘s 3rd Annual Cupcake Cook-Off, held Monday night at Union Pool, was the last straw — yes, the Risotto Challenge is still on, and yes, it will be still awesome, and will help raise money for our friends at Just Food. But until then, folks, I’m staying away from the trays and snaking lines of homemade eats for a while.

The Takedown Tackles Tofu

Nobody was to-fooled by what was in their food Sunday at the Highline Ballroom: it was the first-ever Tofu Takedown. As an antidote to last month’s Bacon Takedown, Matt Timms turned his popular Takedown series upside-down by taking on that versatile and very un-carnivoric delight. Tofu, in all forms, firmnesses and flavors found their way into the contestants’ 17 unique dishes. And as one half of the lucky (“celebrity“?) judging squad (the other half being my half-Asian sista, Akiko), I … Read More

Oh My Guacness

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.

Pork Love Prevails at the Park Slope Pork-Off

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.

Eco-friendly prizes aplenty at the Risotto Challenge

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

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