Food Adventuring Around NYC
Unless you’ve been living under a rock (or a sewer hole), you know that one of the latest fads in the food world is selling food from a truck. New York has always had a history of street food vendors – in fact I give a tour about it with the company Urban Oyster (shameless …
There’s a very interesting phenomenon in this country concerning deli meats. It’s a slowly dwindling cuisine across America. You’d be amazed at how many kids in middle America don’t even know what a pastrami is. When I filmed the last episode of my webseries, Adam interviewed a high schooler who had never had pastrami before …
The blurb in Time Out about the Brisket Sandwich at David’s Brisket House ends with a warning: “Don’t forget the gravy.” Guess what? I forgot the f-ing gravy!!! I knew the sandwich tasted a little dry. I got up at one point to ask for more mustard. I don’t know why one of the friendly …
SADLY, METRO CAFE IS NOW CLOSED. When I first saw Time Out’s list and read that one of the dishes was from Metro Cafe, I almost ripped up the issue right then and there. How could they possibly claim that one of those cheap, generic lunch chains in midtown had one of the best dishes of …
Paulie Gee is the man. Seriously. Paul Gianonne worked as an engineer but had a passion for pizza and dreamed of opening his own pizzeria one day. He became a presence on the NY pizza blogs and started inviting the pizza community over to his house in Jersey to try his homemade pizza. Brilliant idea. …
SADLY, BROOKLYN ICE CREAM FACTORY IS NOW CLOSED. There is no doubt that, exterior wise, Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory is the most aesthetically pleasing of all the ice cream shops in the city. It’s on the Brooklyn Waterfront in DUMBO, just down the block from Grimaldi’s Pizza. And based on the lines here (I waited 20 …
A few months ago, I was contacted to audition for an upcoming cable food show called The Bucket List. It was all about food you got to try before you die. The instructions were to follow the script and pick a favorite restaurant that I thought was worthy of this distinction. No question that the …
People love to tell me what I should tackle on my next food journey. There are so many options in New York. But the one that seems to get recommended the most often are hot dogs. It’s clearly a New York dish and I suppose I’ll have to get to them eventually. But I’ll admit, …
When I received the egg sandwich from Bark Hot Dogs, I couldn’t help but think of all those early morning fast food breakfasts I had on family road trips. This thing looks like it could have come from a McDonald’s microwave. Did Time Out really send me to taste this? But knowing that this casual …
SADLY, DENNY’S DELIGHT IS NOW CLOSED. I find myself on Coney Island so rarely (in fact, I’ve only been three times in the nine years I’ve lived in New York) that I feel I need to take full advantage of the journey and explore and taste as much as I can. No, I didn’t ride the …
SADLY, BLUE MARBLE IS NOW CLOSED. I really really wanted to like Blue Marble. Really I did. It’s co-owned by Alexis Miesen and Jennifer Dundas, two friends who had a dream of making ice cream. Dundas is a working New York stage actress and we have mutual friends, so I had a particular interest in …
One thing I don’t think about when it comes to Mexican food is lamb. I think of tacos in many different flavors: chicken, pork, beef, beans, fish, vegetables. Even the occasional cactus. But I’ve never even seen lamb on the menu at Mexican restaurants (or maybe I haven’t paid close enough attention). And I do …
For all intents and purposes, my pizza journey is over. Of course I couldn’t make it to every single pizzeria in the city and spots continue to open up every week. But I made my peace (piece?) with the pizza search and even wrote up a conclusion. Well, thanks to Jason Feirman and his Pizza …
I’m getting a little bored with all the new restaurants in Brooklyn. They’re all either homey, romantic settings serving modern takes on Southern-influenced comfort food. Or they feature a menu of pub fare in an old fashioned wood-heavy locale designed to be a throwback to an era of New York’s colorful past. Of course I’m …
If you’re ordering a corned beef and pastrami sandwich, you better be prepared for some fat. No matter how hard you try to only eat half a sandwich or order the meat extra lean (and I try both), you’re bound to clog an artery or two. It’s just part of the game. But now, I’d …
Fortunately, my parents never kept kosher. So growing up, I was allowed to indulge in things like cheeseburgers and baby back ribs. But when I’d travel somewhere with my Jewish youth group or spend the summer at sleepaway camp, I had no choice but to keep kosher for the duration of the trip. As much …
Pastrami, as we know it, is made from beef. But it wasn’t always that way. In Romania, the first pastramis were probably made from some sort of fowl, like duck or chicken. And at Barney Greengrass on the Upper West Side, they make a special salmon pastrami. Pastrami really refers to a meat that’s been …
There are words, such as fish, furniture, and moose, that are both the singular and plural form of the root noun. You observe a school of fish, move all the furniture, and run from a stampede of moose. Why has this turned into a grammar blog all of a sudden? Because my next list item …
SADLY, FORT DEFIANCE IS NOW CLOSED. My second trip to Red Hook brought me back to Fort Defiance. I was here just a few days earlier for another Time Out list item, the Iced Coffee. But this time, it was time for dinner, so the deviled eggs were now available. There’s a very funny moment on …
Some folks like to get away, take a holiday from the neighborhood. When Billy Joel sings those lyrics, he’s implying that no vacation is as satisfying or comfortable as being in his home state. But New York State of Mind was written long before the gentrification of Red Hook. In the last few years, this …