Gastronomic Locavority

Dec 21

lindsayrgwattFood, NYC new amsterdam market, tourtiere Comments Off

Yesterday was the year’s last installment of the New Amsterdam Market.  It’s New York’s most charming farmer’s market and is held in one of it’s most charmless locations (underneath the FDR by the old Fulton fish market).  The market is a celebration of the passion and craft of local and regional food artisans.  Whether you’re looking for bread, meat, cheese, chocolate, coffee or olive oil, the common thread is an insatiable passion in the topic by whoever is selling to you.

This leads to some outlandishly enjoyable situations: below is a photo of the folks from Prime Meats selling duck confit hot pockets.  Unbelievably delicious and yet ridiculous at the same time.

The other great find at the market was Sarah Obratis’ & Hugue Dufour’s meat pies.  Technically, the weren’t actually at the market, which meant that you had to literally buy a pie out of the trunk of their Corolla (it all felt very surreptitious).  The tourtiere’s have a mouth-watering mix of meat – brisket, pork and turkey – and come with their own Cranberry-based tomato sauce.  Ours lasted two days (really, more like 28 hours).

For the Alcoholic Russophile who has it all

Oct 11

lindsayrgwattFood, NYC Comments Off

Do you have an alcoholic Russian (or Russian-loving friend) who is filthy rich and you’re struggling to find a gift for them?  Maybe they own a football or basketball team and already have a chateau in the French countryside.  Fortunately, the good folks at Astor Wines understand your challenges and offer Imperial Collection Faberge Egg:

This bit of conspicuous consumption/unnecessary luxury can be your for the astonishingly low price of $2,399.99 (note that they ran out of space for the last ‘9′ in the shot below):

Your oligarch awaits his gift.

Hot Diggity Dog

Jul 21

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New York is crushing on the hot dog right now (witness this and this).  As a result, Wen and I decided to devote Saturday to eating hot dogs.

Our first stop was at Dogmatic near Union Square.  You get to pick your dog (i.e., pork vs. beef vs. lamb, etc.) and then pick your sauce (e.g., truffle & gruyere, yogurt, etc.).  I had the lamb & yogurt and it was a smashing success.  The bun is great too: it’s a half a baguette:

Dogmatic also gets bonus points for their interior: you sit at a monolithic shared table:

Later we headed over to Brooklyn Flea to check out Asia Dog’s unique dogs.  Check out their flavours:

We split the vinh and the ito.  Next time I’m trying the wangding-although it requires a run first:

These hot dogs are definitely the taste of the summer.

Torontonia

Mar 09

lindsayrgwattFood, Travel Toronto Comments

I spent the weekend in Toronto visiting my bro and checking out his new place.  Here are a couple of thoughts about it.

Toronto’s Got a Big Building Boom

I haven’t lived in Toronto for a few years now, but it is unreal how much the city is changing.  The skyline is dotted with cranes – and almost all of them are making condos (why, oh why, do I feel like I’ve heard this story before and I know how it’s going to end…).

Two items signify just how extreme this is.  The first, is the pit for the new Shangri-la hotel/condo.  It’s about 10 stories deep:

The other is a dilapidated house near Chinatown where someone has graffitied it with turn me into condo daddy.

Toronto’s Got Some Great Public Buildings

In the last few years, Toronto’s upgraded a lot of their institutions: a new opera house, an addition to the ROM and a complete reworking of the AGO.

The ROM now has a brilliant facade – a rotated cube that juts out over the street:

Just a few blocks away is the new and improved AGO.  It’s now got a blue cube on the back…

…with a Frank Gehry-designed galleria on the front:

The inside of the galleria is just as beautiful:

One of its entrances is from the Henry Moore gallery and the effect is spectacular:

The central atrium is possessed by an anthropomorphic, soothing, wooden staircase (made less soothing by Andrew standing in front of it):

If you climb to the top of the stairwell, you can sit under forty foot ceilings, surrounded by contemporary art and sip an espresso with a killer view of the skyline:

The most important part of the AGO is that it is not simply archiporn.  It has the single best collection of Canadian art in the world.  Period.  There are more Krieghoffs, Colevilles, and Group of Sevens here than you will find anywhere else.  You can visit this gallery and then feel like you know Canada.

This collection is better than what is in the National Gallery (and I’m an Ottawa boy originally, so I should be looking down on a Toronto gallery).  Thank you Ken Thomson.

Kensington Market is Still Great

We spent a lot of time bombing around Kensington Market.  On Friday, Andrew and I had dinner at La Palette.  The steak and frites are amazing; sit at the bar to eat and humour the bar staff.  We asked one what a beer was like.  Her response: smooth – comme le petit Jesus dans un cour de velour.  She’d picked that one up from a French Canadian woman; it translates as ‘like the baby Jesus in a velour suit’ – quite the image.

Later on in the weekend we picked up some cheese at Global Cheese…

…plus a quick bite of tacos at El Trompo.  Go there for some authentic mexican.  The building might not look like much but the food holds its own with the best:

City Center Airport is the Only Way to Travel

I flew in to the City Center airport right at sunset and it’s the only way to travel.  Here’s what the flight in looks like:

You can then walk into the city (when was the last time you walked to an airport?) and if you go at sunset you’ll see something like this:

Borough Food

Mar 02

lindsayrgwattFood, NYC brooklyn, cheese, coffee, meat Comments Off

A recent New York Times article inspired a weekend visit to Brooklyn’s Carroll Gardens in search of good food – and what a trip it was.  I’m sitting on my couch feeling like a sated pig, so here’s a list of places to check out:

Stinky Brooklyn 261 Smith St

Meat.  Cheese. Repeat.  I bought some Chorizo and they were kind enough to let me try a few types of cheese plus some Jamon Iberico.  You gain weight the moment you walk in the store as you’ll want to eat everything:

The Chocolate Room 269 Court Street

Eat in for some of the richest hot chocolate you’ll ever have or take out if you’re in the mood to bring home some pumpkin/tangerine + chili/earl grey + green tea/etc.-flavoured chocolates.

Nunu 529 Atlantic Avenue

You can’t help but be impressed by a store that has a massive showroom and uses it to sell only three varieties of chocolates.  We tried the salt + caramel + chocolate one; I can still taste it.

G Esposito & Sons Pork Store 357 Court Street

If you’re looking for sausages (try the apple chicken), mozzarella cheese and any cut of pork under the son, swing by.  The fresh pasta is also great; last night’s dinner included both the sausages and cheese-filled ravioli medallions.

Clover Coffee 338 Atlantic Ave

This combined art gallery & coffee shop felt a little odd when I was there as they were just storing art for an upcoming exhibit.  However, the coffee was some of the best I’ve ever had.  The store is kitted out with some of the best equipment you’ll find (La Marzocco espresso and Clover filter coffee machines, respectively) and you can taste the difference.  I had a black Kenyan and it literally tasted citrusy plus it was so smooth that the last few sips mixed with the sugar at the bottom tasted more like juice than coffee.

Frankies Spuntino 457 Court Street

This restaurant oozes Sunday afternoon charm (but it’s by no means for Sunday afternoons alone).  Tin roof, exposed brick, bare bulbs, wooden bar and packed tables.  I had the frittata sandwich alongside bacon that was cut at least a half an inch thick – after cooking.  They also have Stumptown Coffee, making it even that much better.

Tequila & Tarts

Feb 15

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Yesterday was Valentine’s Day, and in addition to these flowers:

Wendy was also the recipient of a set of Petit Fours and truffles from Three Tarts (they get bonus points for lavender- and chili-flavoured truffles):

I also made her a dinner of tequila lime chicken with cilantro dressing.  There’s a secretly nerdy reason why I made it – I was at a vendor conference on Thursday and they showed that page as an example of their technology; I thought the recipe looked great and so we made it.  It’s a great dish and very light – just be aware that the prep time is massive (you’ve got to make the oil and plucking leaves off of cilantro ain’t the easiest thing…).

Valentine’s Day was almost perfect – the only snag was that we went out to Bushwick for a party, only to get there and find out that it had been shut down by the police.  On the plus side, we taught our cab driver how to navigate the backwoods of Brooklyn…

Milkfrothing 101

Feb 04

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Three weeks ago it was pulling espresso shots; this week it’s learning how to properly froth milk.  That’s right, today I took a one hour course on how to froth milk.  Every morning I make two lattes (that’s over 700 per year!), so I figured that it makes sense to learn how to make them properly.

Here’s a quick recap on how to properly froth milk:

1. Insert the spray nozzle just below the surface of the milk, slightly to the side
2. Turn it on and make sure that you’re hearing “a whisper – not a gurgle”.  As a rule of thumb, if you’re making big bubbles, that’s bad.  You want to be introducing air to the milk to provide it with texture, but you don’t want big bubbles as then you’ll be tasting air not coffee (big bubble are full of air, ergo you’re drinking air)
3. When the temperature of the milk hits 100 degrees fahrenheit (body temperature), plunge the nozzle to the bottom of the pitcher.  This should create an almost whirlpool-like effect in the milk
4. When the temperature hits 150 (too hot to touch), it’s time to turn off the steam
5. Let the steam totally come out and take the nozzle out from the milk.  If you pull the nozzle away before the steam stops you’ll end up with some big bubbles forming as the nozzle leaves the surface
6. Now bang the pitcher against the counter a few times to cause any big bubbles to pop
7. Swirl it a few times and voila – great milk

Your milk should have a sheen on it, almost like paint.  Of course, this is assuming that you want this sort of fancy-pants milk; you might love big bubble, in which case – froth away!  Just remember, if you want to make milk like I described above, the rules are “temperature + turbulence = texture” and “whole milk is your friend” (the fat means that it doesn’t separate like skim milk).

Practice this a few times and you’ll literally find yourself crying over spilt milk.  Sorry for the bad pun.

Cooking Thai

Jan 25

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One of my new year’s resolutions was to learn how to cook Thai food.  Tonight I finally got around to making a meal – chicken with Thai basil and cashews.

It turned out well: very aromatic, light and incredibly fresh.  Here’s a shot (tastes much better than it looks); recipe follows:

Ingredients:

• 1.5 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breasts
• 2 lemongrass stalks, white part only, finely chopped
• 3 small fresh red chiles, seeded and finely chopped.  Note: we used green chiles as that’s all they had at the store and it still tasted great
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh ginger
• 2 fresh cilantro roots, finely chopped.  Note: it’s almost impossible to get cilantro root as it’s cut off the cilantro in most stores.  Just chop up the stalk and it’ll work fine
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil.  Note: we used olive oil and it still tasted great
• 2/3 cup cashews
• 1.5 tablespoons lime juice.  Note: that’s about 2 limes, squeezed
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 1.5 tablespoons light brown sugar
• 2 cups lightly packed fresh Thai basil.  Note: if you can’t get Thai basil, normal basil will work
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch mixed with 1 tablespoon water

Directions:

• Place the chicken in a large bowl with the lemongrass, chilies, garlic, ginger and cilantro root.  Mix together well
• Heat a wok over medium heat, add 1 teaspoon of the oil, and swirl to coat the surface of the wok.  Add the cashews and cook for 1 minute or until lightly brown (note: you better stir ‘em as they burn quickly).  Remove and drain on paper towels
• Heat the remaining oil in the wok, add the chicken in batches, and stir-fry over medium heat for 4-5 minutes or until browned.  Return the chicken to the wok
• Stir in the lime juice, fish sauce, brown sugar, and basil, and cook for 30-60 seconds or until the basil just begins to wilt.  Add the cornstarch mixture and stir fry until the mixture thickens slightly.  Stir in the cashews and serve with steamed rice

Serves 4

Lazy Day

Jan 18

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It is the deliriously lazy Sunday of a long weekend today; one of those days where the slightest task feels as though it is an Odyssey-like challenge.  Wen and I have enjoyed a day of doing nothing, with the result that this blog post is about almost nothing.

One of our lazy Sunday traditions is brunch.  A favourite local spot of ours is the Empire Diner.  Here’s a shot of it from this morning (or, perhaps, this afternoon as it was 1pm…).

Hope your Sunday was as good as ours.

The Perfect Pull

Jan 14

lindsayrgwattFood, NYC coffee Comments

So today Richard and I took coffee lessons (Espresso Fundamentals) at Joe.  It was a quick class on how to pull the perfect espresso shot.  I’m hoping my morning lattes will now get a lot better.

In addition to learning how to make a great shot, I learned a fair bit about espresso.  For instance, there’s no such thing as an ‘espresso bean’: espresso is a blend of many different types of beans.  Joe uses a blend from the Barrington Coffee Roasting Company – who won’t way what’s in the blend, but the Joe baristas suspect a mix of Ethiopian and Guatemalan.  FYI, this should also tip you off that when you buy a cafe’s ‘coffee’, you’re really just buying repackaged stuff from a roaster.

But I digress.  We also learned that you could use single origin coffee in an espresso machine, but you wouldn’t want to as the taste would be weird.  It would be either too sour or too bitter – and a good espresso shot should start sour and end bitter.

Before I tell you how to do that, here’s a shot (pun intended) of the machine we worked on:

So how do you create that shot?  Do the following:

1. Adjust the grinder to the fineness you desire
2. Grind the beans into the filter.  The amount should be heaping and overflowing the filter.  Note that the depth of your filter will determine whether it is a single/double/triple shot
3. Tap the filter against the fork of the grinder (where you were resting it as you were grinding) two or three times in order to make it settle
4. Run your finger across the top of the filter to flatten the coffee: to the left, to the right, then down, then up.  This ensures that there’s a consistency to the coffee and that water will not ‘channel’ through it.  If the water channels you will end up with some coffee in your shot; some plain water -all bad
5. Tamp the coffee down into a puck.  Do it once with 10 pounds of force and once with 30 pounds of force.  This is a critical step.  If you do too much the espresso will ‘fall’ too fast; too much and it will take too long for the water to get through your coffee puck and the flavour will be too bitter
6. Run the steam/water without yet putting in the filter.  This clears out any particulate
7. Add the filter and then turn the steam half on for two seconds.  This causes a thin film of water to form on top of the coffee and will ensure that when the steam is added it is all at the same temperature, thereby ensuring consistency in the coffee
8. Turn on the water.  After six seconds espresso should start to come through; after 22-26 seconds it should halt and you should turn off the water.  If it drops earlier or later your coffee will not taste good.  Adjust the grain of the grind in step 1 and repeat and you’ll eventually work it out

There you go.  How to pull the perfect shot.  Here’s a photo of Richard’s as it was coming out:

This shot was on it’s way to being pretty much perfect.  By the time it was finished he had almost exactly an ounce and a half of coffee/crema.  Notice how the shot’s pouring smoothly out the bottom of the filter (they call them naked filters as you can see the bottom) – that’s a sign that there’s no ‘channeling’ going on.

Damn fine coffee.  Stop on by some time and you can see if I learned anything.