ProcrastiBlog

The NY Times recipe for Turkey pot pie with chipotle and cheese is awesome, although I did make a few modifications. Instead of the "cheesy stick" lattice top, I made a biscuit topping from this Gourmet magazine recipe (I forgot to add the cheese and they didn't really rise, but whatever). I used homemade Thanksgiving-turkey-carcass stock. I used 1 cup of heavy cream and 1 cup of whole milk (because I didn't have enough cream). I added about a 1.5 cups of sliced shitake mushrooms and 1.5 cups of mixed grated Cheddar/Monterey Jack/Colby along with the turkey and veggies. I sprinkled about 1/2 cup of the cheese on top of the biscuits.

I don't think any of these modifications made a huge amount of difference, although I can testify that it turned out plenty creamy without 2 cups of cream. I would not recommend attempting the cheesy stick lattice.

The problem with making fresh pasta dough by the well method is that, if your eggs should overtop their flour walls, they will move quite rapidly towards the edge of the counter and, from there, to the floor. In my case, I actually managed to let a significant quantity of egg matter seep into the dishwasher.*

The problem with making fresh ravioli is that it's actually quite tricky and you're bound to screw it up the first time, especially if you'd like to stuff them with a mash of fresh pumpkins that is unexpectedly wet. (You've got to walk before you run, kids.)

The problem with Mario Batali is he doesn't say any of this in his recipes.

* Bonus tip: there's no way to save a pasta dough once you've incorporated too much flour (e.g., because you started desperately flinging it at a rapidly advancing torrent of eggs). The dough quite decidely "locks" and won't react to additional liquid/eggs in any useful way.

The New York Times review on Hill Country—the new Texas-style barbecue joint in Chelsea—is correct in every particular. I would add that I found the fatty brisket too fatty (I'm not one to complain about fattiness in general) though still absolutely delicious, and that Hilleary and Stephen were terribly offended by the number of lines involved.

Sautéing tofu dogs is a bad idea.

I just had a damn satisfying bowl of cereal with strawberries and blueberries in it, made all the more satisfying (but at the same time dismaying) by all my failed attempts to have this same bowl of cereal with strawberries and blueberries for the last several months. Apparently they are now actually in season and so they actually, you know, taste good. But even though they previously weren't in season and didn't taste good, the grocery store kept putting them out there for me to buy (at tantalizingly reasonable prices) anyway.

It's ironic, in this world where you can buy summer fruit in January and winter vegetables in August*, where global supply chains are devised to deliver to the consumer everything he wants when he wants it without respect for climate or geography, that we've actually lost a convenience that was intrinsic to the old order: the strawberries, blueberries, apples, peaches, plums, and nectarines only showed up at the grocery when they were good (or just a little bit before. And stayed around just a little bit after). You didn't have to be a student of agriculture with a sharp eye for quality to know when it was and was not OK to buy strawberries: it was OK to buy them for the 3-4 weeks that they were available in grocery stores. Now, it's just a constant exercise in mental discipline and delayed gratification. Ick.

Perhaps this is why I should do more shopping at the farmers' market.

POSTSCRIPT: Hilleary should not read anything in this post to confirm insane and inconvenient ideas developed while reading The Omnivore's Dilemma

* Who wants winter vegetables in August?

Last night, H and I wandered pretty much randomly* into the latest pizza lovers' obsession, Una Pizza Napoletana. The menu is suicidal. There are exactly four food items, all pizzas. No appetizers, no sides, no desserts. The choices are: Margherita (plain), Marinara (no cheese), Bianco (no sauce), or Filetti (with cherry tomatoes instead of sauce). No slices, no toppings, no substitutions. A basically-individual 12-inch pie is $21 (ouch), any variety. There is a similarly limited and uniformly-priced list of wines and beers, which are served lukewarm in a plain drinking glass.

So the pizza better be pretty fucking good, right? Well... it is. Pretty fucking good. Perfect crust: crunchy, chewy, salty, etc. Nicely balanced sauce, nice cheese, fresh basil. Not my favorite pizza in the entire world, which is still either Di Fara in Midwood (a moment of silence...) or Vito's Pizza of Hamilton, NJ, which was for me like mother's milk. Still, damn good.

But... can we cut the crap? I've had una pizza Napoletana. In Napoli. And they have toppings. Nice toppings. Like arugula and prosciutto. Or artichokes. Or ricotta.

I mean, for fuck's sake, people, loosen up. You're doing good work. Now give me some ice cream.

* Momofuku had a wait and we were trying to catch a movie (Ratatouille, which was entertaining, as expected).

[Editor's Note] This is old material imported from my now-defunct Wiki

After my cry for help last week, I've visited three new (to me) sandwich places in the NYU area.

• bite is in that weird flattish building at Lafayette and Bleeker (the one that used to be a clothing store of some kind, I think, but I'm showing my age, because apparently it's been bite for several years now). It is a good replacement for Pamela's: it has the same kind of up-scale fancy cheese, fancy meat sandwiches, some of which are pressed and toasted. I had the fresh mozzarella, prosciutto, and sun-dried tomato panini and I had no complaints. It's a little pricey though: $7 for the sandwich and a lemonade, plus I went halvsies on a $2 brownie.



• BB Sandwich Bar (W 3rd between MacDougal and 6th) serves exactly one thing: a cheese steak sandwich. It comes on a kaiser roll, with white American cheese, onions, and some kind of ketchup/chili sauce. It is $4.50 for regular people and $2.75 for NYU people. It is very yummy. (They also have cupcakes, which I didn't try and which Ittai said he had never tried because he, "doesn't like cupcakes." Jackass.)



• 'wichcraft (8th Street between Mercer and Broadway) is Top Chef Tom Colicchio's foray into "fast food." I got turned onto this place by the NYU paper, which adorably thinks the "East Village" is between 5th Avenue and Broadway. I had the bacon, lettuce, and heirloom tomato sandwich, which cost an absurd $10 (it comes with aioli, not mayo, you cretins). Honestly, it was about as good as a BLT is going to get outside of a fine dining restaurant. But, even so, the tomato was a little mushy. Come on, guys, for ten bucks you can toss out a few mushy tomatoes! The "cheap" side of the menu is a $5 PB&J and grilled gruyere for $5.50. You can also get oatmeal, granola, or grits for $4.

I had my first post-India dosa today and... it met expectations. Which expectations were to be disappointed.

You may ask yourself: why would someone just two weeks back from India buy a dosa in New York anyway? And I would answer: because the dosa guy is one of the only interesting places to get a "fast" lunch near NYU.* The other top contenders are Two Boots and Mamoun's.** (Now that I think about it, I haven't been to Two Boots or Mamoun's yet. Somehow today I had the overpowering urge for a dosa. (Damn you, id!))

On the upside, I noticed that the dosa guy also offers uttapam and puttu, which I know I like, but have not had often enough to be a snob about (yet).

People of the world: NYU lunch joints. Recommend. A satisfying lunch has to be purchasable for $5 or less*** and it has to be fast take-out.**** Within five minutes of Warren Weaver Hall is preferred. (Joe's and Two Boots have me covered for pizza slices. Falafel, schwarma, and South Indian are also covered. (Duh.) If I start going to Chipotle on a regular basis, Hilleary will divorce me.)

* This will seem absurd to some. Having haunted the NYU area for 11 years, I am ridiculously jaded.

** Pamela's merits an honorable mention (primarily and inexplicably for the peanut butter and apple butter sandwich), but they closed over the summer...

*** Private to Tobi: that's like five billion Rupees.

**** Fellow NYU grad students seem to think sitting down for an hour at lunch is reasonable. They are wrong.

Snacks in the MSR pantry
Originally uploaded by Chris & Hilleary.

I forgot about the snacks! Every day between 5 and 6 (i.e., about an hour before dinner), they bring out snacks in the MSR pantry. Typically there are two kinds of juice (e.g., watermelon, mango, grape, pomegranate) or milkshakes (that's what they call them, but I don't think they have ice cream in them), a variety of sandwichs (Bombay*, fruit, chili and cheese), potato chips (which they just call chips, in spite of the English influence), and some kind of "salad" slathered in something like mayonnaise.

The sandwiches and chips come in little take-away boxes with 2 sandwiches and a handful of chips each. This is a silly system, since the chips are more popular than the sandwichs---everybody just digs through the boxes for a pile of chips and you end up having to search for them in various opened boxes with untouched sandwiches.

In addition to the evening snacks, the pantry is always stocked with half a dozen kinds of fruit, a similar selection of cookies, raw almonds, soft drinks, coconut water, and of course, coffee and tea. So basically, I sit around all day and eat delicious junk food. It's all so... un-American.

* I still haven't quite figured out what a Bombay sandwich is. It's grilled and it has a variety of vegetables inside it and it's somewhat spicy.

I had the great privelege of attending a pre-opening party at R.U.B. (Righteous Urban Barbecue, on 23rd St. west of 7th Ave.), a blessing on New York from Paul Kirk, The Kansas City Baron of Barbecue. We sampled ribs, brisket, ham, pastrami, and smoked sausage and it was all outstanding. I wouldn't put it above LC's in Kansas City, but it was damn good---at least as good as Pearson's---and it just may be Mr. Kirk needs to work out the kinks on his new smoking pits before he starts showing us how it's really done. I will be going back ASAP to try the smoked duck and burnt ends.

Our pile of meat was followed by deep-fried Oreos, which might be my new favorite deep-fried dessert.

Mr. Falafel makes an excellent chicken kabob sandwich. Nice fresh pita and salad, tender moist chicken (not what you would expect from take-out). We supplement with our own pepperoncini. Oddly, their falafel is disappointing. I have also found their gyros and feta cheese salads lacking. But the chicken kabob is delicious and cheap, and I would gladly have it delivered any day of the week.

UPDATE: Shish kabob, also good!

Ate at this East Village ramen shop on Saturday night. I had the Charshu Ramen, a basic bowl with extra pork. There was no need for extra anything, as the soup was thick and rich and incredibly filling. I only got about halfway through my bowl before I had to stop, and I suffered from uncomfortable fullness and indigestion for the rest of the evening. So, despite the satisfying tastiness of the meal, I don't think I'll be going back.

We ate at Two Boots Brooklyn the other night. A fun place, good pizza. Hilleary was put off by their sopressata, which she thought didn't have enough flavor outside of pure pig fat (guess we won't be trying the Lardo at Otto*). I thought it was fine. They don't offer the specialty pies (e.g., the Larry Tate, Mr. Pink, or Newman) that are featured at their Manhattan locations (is this restaurant even related to the Manhattan locations?), but they offer most of the same ingredients, so you can build your own (except the Mr. Pink---no marinated chicken). I have tried their cajun specialties in the past and wasn't too impressed.

* Just for the record (and some snob points), that's "oh-toh" as in "eight" in Italian**, not "ah-toh" as in a heavy-set German man.

** The restaurant is on 8th St (and is Italian), although its address is inexplicably 1 Fifth Ave.

UPDATE: For the record, Hilleary was not merely "put off" by the sopressata, but was disgusted by it. I apologize for the error.

We've only just discovered the pleasures of Sunset Park. We've been following the consensus on Chowhound, so none of this will come as news to the culinarily tuned-in...

We've become obsessed with the Banh Mi at Ba Xuyen (4222 8th Ave near 43rd St). These are Vietnamese sandwiches: a combination of Asian meats, carrots and other fresh crunchy vegetables (think summer roll here), fresh serrano peppers, cilantro, and a sweet, garlicy aioli, served on a baguette (made with rice flour, I think, so it's lighter and crispier than a French baguette). You will not believe how tasty these things are or how cheap ($3-4). The meats available are kind of mysterious: pork roll (Asian, not Italian), bbq pork, pate, meat balls (again, not Italian; think Thai fish balls with pork), and shredded pork. My only complaint is that I haven't found a meat I'm entirely happy with. (Luckily, the pleasures of the sandwich are centered on the vegetables.) A flight of fancy: the ultimate Americanized Banh Mi might be made with barbecue pulled pork (aka smoked pork butt). Maybe somebody out there is doing this already? [UPDATE: I have now tried nearly everything on the menu and the grilled pork is by far the best meat on offer. It is tender and succulent and not-at-all frightening to this American's palate, as some of the Asian cold cuts can be. I'm still fantasizing about some nice smoked butt, but grilled pork will do in the interim.]

Today, we had lunch at Gia Lam (4810 8th Ave near 48th St). Hilleary had the Pho with "eye of round" and spring rolls. I was hedging my bets and order a combination plate with a pork chop, shredded pork, and an egg cake. The pork chop was delicious. It was a thin slice of pork with a sweet and salty glaze similar to the flavor of a Chinese spare rib. It was served atop a pile of white rice and garnished with scallions. The egg cake was mushroomy and oniony, somewhere between a quiche and a meatloaf. Next time, I will get the pork chop by itself (only $3, as I recall).

Hello. My name is Christopher Conway. I am a graduate student in Computer Science at Columbia University and I live in the Park Slope/Gowanus area of Brooklyn. I will use this blog to post occassional reviews of restaurants and other things that might be of interest to some small part of the public.

I'm starting this blog for the most part to test Brad DeLong's method of letting Google keep track of your life. Recently, I was at a restaurant (Coco Roco on 5th Ave around 6th St in Park Slope) that I had been to a handful of times over the last few years and I realized I had forgotten what I had tried there and how it was. So from now on (at least some of the time), I am going to blog my meals and use this blog archive in place of brain cells. It is unclear whether anyone in the world but me will find this interesting.

So, for Coco Roco:

1. I am told that I have enjoyed the chicken in the past. It is incredibly cheap ($5 for a half a bird; most entrees are two or three times that).
2. The ceviche is uniformly excellent.
3. The sangria is quite tasty. Not too sweet and a little light on the fruit.
4. The "Pescados con Tacu Tacu" (or something like that) -- red snapper with yucca -- was pretty terrible. The fish was dry and chewy. The yucca was chalky. A side of beans and rice was the only edible thing on the plate.
   
5. Inka cola tastes like bubble gum. Yuck.
6. I must try the chocolate empanada someday. It sounds wonderful.