Aroma Cucina

Dinner Rituals and a Side of Sautéed Mushrooms

In all the chaos of the past few months, I was struck by a lightening bolt moment of clarity. And, gee, no surprise, it was at the dinner table.

Deep into this conference experience, there was a rare night when it was just Jeff and me at home. Alone. Unexpected. And I made us dinner.   And it was good.  Thus spake Zarathustra, that sly Ubermensch,  delivering his sermon about evolved humanity.

With all the intriguing restaurant dinners, hastily grabbed meals, take out and delivery, we were losing our personal social mooring. Gobbling food in front of a computer does not a dinner make. Shared meals matter and it wasn’t until I was making this dinner that I realized how much they matter to us. What’s that silly pop song? “You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone?”

That’s not to say, I wasn’t a bit rusty in the kitchen! My timing was off.  Normally I’m pretty good at managing when to start the water, heat the pan, pull the vegetable from the heat. There is a little dance that goes on when you cook (which is an excellent reason to have good music on in the kitchen).  And was my dancing was creaky that night!
It didn’t matter, what mattered was simple, tasty food, with no other obligations. Besides sautéed mushrooms always make things better.


In our house, there is a ritual to making, eating and cleaning up dinner. my gift is making the dinner. We share the eating. Jeff’s gift is cleaning up. It’s not the best way, or the only way...it’s just our gift to each other ritual. 

If you have kids, or presumably you were once a kid, you know the value of a bedtime ritual. It means safety and comfort and imparts an all-is-right-with-the-world security. Why shouldn’t we recognize the value of a dinner ritual?  If marketers were able to convince the world that convenience and speed trumps home cooking, couldn’t a different set of marketers help us ‘discover’ the value of home meals? 

This is something we should be discussing over the dinner table, isn’t it?


And here is my go-to, can’t really mess it up, Sautéed Mushroom recipe.
Sautéed Mushrooms
A mix of mushrooms is best, but white buttons will do
Minced Parsley
Minced Garlic
Butter
Olive Oil
Sweet Wine
Lemon Juice
Salt, Pepper

There is no real need for quantities here. The recipe scales and is forgiving, so use what you have on hand.

Wash, drain and cube the mushrooms. Mince 1 clove of garlic for every cup of cubed mushrooms. I prefer the dish to be about the mushroom flavor and not overly garlicky. You make them the way you like, ok?

On medium heat, warm a saute pan big enough to hold all of the mushrooms. Add about a tablespoon of olive oil and a small pat of butter. Let the butter melt and the oil warm up. Now add the mushrooms and garlic, cover and let the mushrooms simmer and lose their water, approximately 3-5 minutes.

When the mushrooms are bubbling away in their own juices, remove the lid and let the moisture reduce. When the pan is just about dry, this should take about 5 minutes, add a shot of sweet wine and mix well.  Reduce again until the pan is nearly dry.

Add another small pat of butter, a squirt of lemon juice and a generous grind of black pepper.  Mix well and serve in a warm dish. Garnish with the minced parsley.

Catch y’all on the flip side, cuz’ we’re heading back to the old country tonight.
Time to plant the orto, have ringing bells tell us the time (instead of honking horns letting me know it’s rush hour) and slow down the pace of life. Our boyz are having a little pre-flight snuggle....this is Dante’s first big adventure, so wish us a peaceful flight!


Buon appetito e ci vediamo a presto!

NYC IACP Conference Evolution: Down the Rabbit Hole

Like Alice tumbling down the rabbit hole, I’ve been living in a parallel world for the past seven months. Jeff tumbled in a few months ago and as we are emerging and returning to our old world, we are much richer for friendships forged in foxholes, much wiser for hard lessons learned, and excited about what the future holds. 

What am I talking about?? I vanish from the blog world, come back blathering about   rabbit holes. Good Lord, I’m a Born Again Blogger!

I’m talking about the International Association of Culinary Professionals annual conference in NYC that was 5 days of food, fashion and love.  People have written eloquently and glowingly about attending this conference, this is about what it was like to plan and execute this whale of a conference.

Don’t call me Ishmael. Call me Nutz.

It all started with Doug Duda. He’s part Merry Prankster, part Auntie Mame willing us to enjoy the ride, part Guru with mystical ideas that continually flow, and part Whisperer, smoothing over the rough patches. He was also the Conference Chair for this whole shindig, and he invited me along for the journey. My job, as the honorable “Host City Chair”,  would be to corral the ideas and keep fitting the pieces of the puzzle together.

The next one to join our little band of Pranksters was Martha Holmberg, author, writer, visionaire. Martha is a bit of Pippi Longstocking, a dash of Judith Jones, with good pinch of Ruth Reichl’s editorial eye and Anna Wintour’s instincts.

And then we were 3. Of course, it wasn’t just us, but we became a nucleus, or maybe we became a virus as we infected others with The Passion.

Here, drink a little KoolAid,  and help us plan this event that eventually grew to be 5 days long,  with over 23 tours launched in a single day, an opening party with 16 chefs, phenomenal cocktails and naked women covered in fruit slices, over 230 speakers, over 170 educational sessions,a glamorous awards ceremony, a culinary expo that was zinging with energy, a book and blog festival that rocked, demos and hands on classes at the Institute of Culinary Education, the International Culinary Center, and a delightful, intelligent cocktail party and more sessions at the James Beard House. 

Conferences need a theme, and Darra Goldstein of Gastronomica  filtered the New York food scene into a simple sounding concept, “The Fashion of Food”.  New York as an axis of media, food policy, food trends, culture and fetish.
But how do you translate that into a visual message? This was fun, batting around ideas, trying to distill the message into something cleaner, simpler.
Enter Jason Blake. Jason is a challenging, provocative  photographer whose photos tell stories, the narrative caught in a shutter flick.

You see what’s happening, right? More bodies tumbling down the rabbit hole, but not tumbling, more like we were thermalling, buoyed by each others ideas.

Jason woke up one morning with THE way to tell this Fashion of Food story. Take the threads of what is in style now: veganism, craft cocktails, culinary students, cookbook authors, charcuterie makers, urban farmers, kids, a butcher, a coffee roaster. Use real people, stylize them like a Gucci ad and ask the question, “Am I in Fashion?”.
Martha came up with the tagline that said it all.  We had the visual anchor. We had a conversation starter.

The actual photo shoot was a bit like the stateroom scene in the Marx Brothers “Night at  the Opera”. Organized chaos that verged on ordinary chaos.

Pushing  furniture aside in our loft, we set up a simple back drop and had our artisans display their talents. Our poor mixologist arrived with a hang over and we had him pouring a soy sauce and water mixture over and over to simulate a cocktail. I’m sure the smell worked well with a raging hangover.  Our butcher skateboarded over from Brooklyn with 3 rabbits he’d slaughtered in his backyard. Actually he slaughtered 50 of them and just brought 3. He always butchers in a shirt and tie. We had to hide the rabbits from the vegan activist when she showed up. The coffee roaster is naturally gorgeous, and I think Jason fell a little in love with her, but that’s to be expected. Then again, throughout the day, I think he fell in love more than once.

How did we find these people? Nicki, the coffee roaster is the daughter of Jeff’s first girlfriend.  The charcuterie maker is our good friend Elaine, she of cherry pie fame.  Adam the butcher? I think Adam and Nora, our urban farmer,  came from a conversation with Holley Atkinson of Slow Food NYC. The adorable kids are Karin Endy’s boys. Karin is the President of The Culinary Trust and Karin roped in Ona our culinary student and Simone our vegan. I met Lauren Shockey, our author, at a book signing event and fell in love with the story behind her smile. The mixologist thought I might be just a little nuts, but he was a good sport in the end.The net widens.

This is a long story, that deserves telling. But it needs to be told in pieces, in installments.

Next chapter: enter Jimmy Carbone. (Kar- bone- ay).  Bring a beer for that chapter.

A Celebration of Good Things to Come: IACP NYC Conference

IACPNYC Conference Launch Party, Jan 9, 2012

It was time to throw a party and a party we did throw!
There is a wild & crazy group working on the IACP Annual Conference and it was about time we did a little celebrating.

A little background: IACP (Intl Assoc of Culinary Professionals) has a conference every year and this time it’s in NYC, so naturally it’s bigger, noisier, splashier, and of course, tres, tres fashionable! 

This will be 5 days of workshop sessions with some of the biggest names in the culinary world, parties, awards, red carpets, demos, expos...you name it, we’ve got a session that covers it from Times Sq to Soho and points in between.

You know it takes a lot of people to make it happen, so last Monday we threw a party to kick back with everyone who has been working on this conference, local members and curious culinarians.  Obviously the word has gotten out that we’ve kicked things up...a lot!  The buzz was deafening in that room! We got some complaints the next day that the music was too loud, but I think DJ Snacky Tunes was just about perfect..there was just a zillion people in a club. Of course it was noisy! 

Thanks to the generous folks at Santos Party House, we had this fabulous downtown club to do our celebrating. The crew who work there are professional and absolutely great to work with. If you are looking to throw a party, this might be the place for you!  We even had velvet ropes, with gigantic bouncers guys at the door.  Are those dudes paid not to smile? If they said move...I moved!

Usually these type of events are the kind where you come, stay a little while and politely and quietly leave after showing your face.  Not this party.  The world showed up and no one wanted to leave!  

 

Thanks to our generous sponsors, there were indeed delicious reasons to hang around.
Driscoll Berries got right into our Fashion of Food theme with an amazing display of a berry covered dress form with very generous tastings of all their berries. Jarlsberg USA’s had this crazy cheese sculpture with a shredded cheese dip that was way too addictive! 
Brooklyn Oenology’s lineup of their local wines, all blended in Brooklyn was impressive. The Brooklyn Brewery kept all the beer drinkers very happy.  What’s with Manhattan, I ask you?? We have no wineries, no breweries? Manhattan it is time to step up to the plate!

Bulldog Gin, one of our house favorites, came with their sparkling Blueberry Cobbler signature cocktail.

Salumeria Rosi Parmacotto had a spread of hand sliced prosciutto, mortadello, porchetta and salumis that was a tasting feast. Honestly, I haven’t had prosciutto that good since I was last in the Old Country!
Bobolink Dairy’s cheeses and fresh baked breads were gorgeous and tasty.

Special kudos to Jimmys No.43’s for that crazy good  bruschetta! The more  time I spend with Jimmy’s Food Karma crew, the more I love them!

And speaking of love, who doesn’t love Voss water in those chic, sexy bottles?
 
The attendee list read like a who’s who directory of the movers and shakers from all corners of the culinary world:  from chefs to food bloggers, from food stylists to food photographers, from restauranteurs to reviewers, from journalists to cookbook authors, from vintners to brewers, and of course culinary students.  A true blend of culinary disciplines in attendance, with an obvious new mix of young talent anxious to be a part of this evolving organization.

The upcoming NYC Conference was what everybody in the room was talking about.  You could feel the excitement and anticipation of what will be happening at this 5 day Conference. There were ideas and schemes popping up in every corner.

 There are workshops not to be missed, and optional tours that will wow even the most jaded New Yorker!  A word of warning: book early to avoid disappointment, as space is limited, and they are going fast. And there will be a few more parties, and who wants to miss a good party?

 

New Year's: Let's Drink Punch!

People are coming over, or you’re going to a house party. What’s an appropriate libation? Something that doesn’t require precision, can be made in batches, and won’t knock you or your guests on their fannys would be a good start.

Punch to the rescue! Yes, punch. Back in style, thanks to David Wondrich’s lovely book, “Punch”.

Punch, that communal libation, needs a new image.  It makes me think of 1950’s high school dances where someone snuck booze into the party. No, I’m not that old, I’ve only watched old movies. Our generation smoked pot. Hence my nostalgia for big crystal bowls with silly matching tea cups hanging on hooks on the rim of the bowl.

When did the idea of putting a delicious Champagne punch in a too small tea cup seem like a good idea?

Time for a make-over!

Here are two festive Bubbly Punch recipes, one a classic and one so modern it’s almost, nearly good for you.

*A note about the Champagne. These recipes date back to a time when Champagne wasn’t so expensive and you couldn’t find good alternatives like Prosecco or Cava. For these recipes, you only need to use a dry, sparkling, white wine.   But, we’ll keep calling it a Champagne punch because it sounds so ritzy.

The Ritz Champagne Punch
1 bottle sparkling white wine
1 1/2 cups lemon juice
3/4  cup simple syrup
1/2 cup Maraschino liqueur
1/2  cup Triple Sec
16 oz. Brandy
16 oz. Club Soda

Approx 16 servings.

Mix the lemon juice and simple syrup together and taste. If it is super sour, add more simple syrup until the mix is pleasantly tart.

Combine the lemon juice mixture, Maraschino, Triple Sec Brandy into a chilled pitcher and keep cold.

If you are juicing your own lemons, and of course you are, you may want to save 1 or 2 of the lemon skins to make the garnish. Cut the top and bottom off of the lemon and then core out the flesh of the lemon. Slit the lemon skin open and lay it on a flat cutting surface. Trim off any of the white pith, so you just have the lemon skin. It’s a little tricky, don’t get too crazy with this, just get as much of the white off as possible. Now roll the skin into a tight ball, and secure it with toothpicks. When it comes time to serve the cocktail, thinly slice the skin, and unroll the now-curly strips, placing one end over the edge of the glass and letting the unfurled skin dangle inside the glass.

In a champagne flute, add a small shot of soda water, a small shot of the booze and lemon juice mixture, and top with the sparkling wine.

If you don’t want to fuss at all, at the last possible moment, combine all of the ingredients in a large, chilled punch bowl and let the guests help themselves.

This punch could be called the double whammy: it’s very drinkable but very strong! Be warned.

And now, for our nearly healthy punch!

Midnight in Mumbai
2 bottles of sparkling white wine
4 oz. brandy
4 oz. cointreau
1 bag of frozen cranberries
2 thinly slice oranges
1-2 boxes of raspberries frozen into a block of ice

First, everyone must dress like an extra from a dance scene in a Bollywood movie. It totally sets the mood.

Clean the raspberries and place in a square plastic container. Fill the container with water and freeze.

When it is party time, add all of the ingredients into a large chilled punch bowl, float the raspberry block in the punch and start dancing!

 Happy New Year from Jude, Jeff, Raffaello and Dante!

Where Have We Been Lately?

‘May you live in interesting times.’ - ancient Chinese curse.
“They are times of danger and uncertainty; but they are also more open to the creative energy of men than any other time in history.” - Robert F Kennedy

Not that we’ve been in any danger, and that phrase about interesting times is most likely not a Chinese curse at all, but lately we have been roiled and rolled by life! 

Planning for the upcoming IACP Conference in NYC next spring has dominated our days, but it has been interesting, entertaining and stimulating. The collective creative energy of everyone involved is making this one wild and crazy time.

Earlier this week we went on a ‘dry run’ of one of our optional tours that will be offered during Conference. Escorted by the charming Kian Lam Kho of Red Cook,  we fearlessly boarded the No. 7 train to Flushing Queens.  He took us to three of his favorite restaurants: a Taiwanese, a Shanghai and a northern Chinese restaurant where we had the most amazing cumin crusted rack of lamb ribs. Cumin lamb ribs are Chinese? I would go back to Flushing in a heartbeat to eat these crispy, crunchy cumin-y ribs!
 Our last stop was the huge New World mall Food Court and I confess, I barely had any belly room left for tasting the hand pulled noodles that would normally be tops on my “To Slurp” list.

Grace Young, the Stir Fry Guru, was also along on our excursion and kept us entertained with stories and recipes from her family in China. We sampled the sticky, sweet, savory, succulent “3 cup chicken” at the Taiwanese restaurant. This launched a conversation about regional cooking variations that sounded as much like Italy as it did about China.  Grace’s uncle’s version of 3 cup chicken included equal parts rice vinegar, soy sauce and sugar. While Kian’s version was equal parts rice vinegar, soy sauce and sesame oil.  All I know is Jeff kept jabbing me with a chopstick saying, “You have to make this!!” So I guess I’ll be experimenting with this tasty glaze in the very near future.

Sea intestine just doesn’t sound appetizing, does it? Does it make you any more intrigued if I say it’s actually a sea worm? Or that one description of the live sea worm described it as a phallic filled condom?
Here are two of our cohorts watching a YouTube video of a tank of sea intestine worms. mmm...

But for all that buildup, it’s a mild flavored, toothsome, ingredient that when it is cleaned and cooked, looks a lot like whole wheat ziti and tastes great paired with braised Chinese celery.

One of my surprise favorites was the curdled soymilk soup. Despite it’s off putting look, I could see craving a bowl of this savory soup on a blustery cold day.

I’m late to the party when it comes to soup dumplings.  It seems like everyone else has been singing the praises of xian long bow. I thought soup dumpling meant the dumpling was in a bowl of soup, but it’s the other way around: the soup is inside the dumpling! (How do they do that??)

I needed a lesson on the proper way to eat soup dumplings and the beautiful Maya was happy to show me the ropes. Most important: eat them hot, hot! Carefully pry the dumpling out of the steamer with your chopsticks and into your spoon, add some ginger flavored vinegar to the spoon, bite the top off of the dumpling and then slurp up the soup and the dumpling. I believe this causes an instant addiction reaction.

And that, my friends,  was just one afternoon of Conference planning! I mean we had to do a ‘dry run’ of one of the tours we are planning, right?

 If you want to take this tour you’ll have to join IACP and come along on Kian’s next tour of Chinatown!
Buon appetito indeed.

Eating the NE Corridor: We gave thanks!

From New York City to Philadelphia to Baltimore to Washington NJ, we gave thanks. Thanks for family, thanks for friends who are extended family, and thanks for the memories to those who were not with us this weekend. Make no mistake, we ate and drank extremely well, but it was all about sharing.

Pre-Thanksgiving dinner at my cousin’s house has turned into a semi-annual event that is not to be missed. We all gather with choice wines in hand, and Jim and Zona turn out a 5 star meal.  One of the big hits of the evening: grilled pork tenderloin stuffed with figs and a Spanish blue cheese, served with a guava habenero sauce. Oh yeah!  The sauce was thick, rich and weighty, with a bracing kick of spice.

They have kindly shared the sauce recipe with us:
Ingredients:
                  12- 15 oz guava juice
                   2 heavy tsp. blackberry preserves or jelly
                   1 large shallot minced
                   1" piece of fresh ginger peeled and grated
                   1/4 cup honey
                   1/4 cup soy
                   1 good size habenero minced finely
 
Gently sauté the minced shallot in butter taking care not to brown the shallot.
Add the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil,  then reduce to low simmer.  
Add a butter/flour roux to thicken and cook for about an hour.
Refrigerate overnight and heat back up near a boil and and then strain the solids.

Our Baltimore Thanksgiving day tradition always starts off with a massive Oyster Rockefeller fiesta.  I see your face...”Oysters Rockefeller? That is so 1950's!” Which of course you are saying in your best "Honey Badger" voice.

If more people made this classic dish the way it should be made, you wouldn’t be making that face. Barely warmed oysters, topped with spinach, nuts and garlic, and sprinkled with grated cheese. The oysters are pulled out of the oven the instant the cheese bubbles.  The kind of perfection that people fight over! Serve with a cool glass of something sparkling.

We made our way back to Philadelphia on Friday where I had a taste epiphany: beer!


I’m one of the last holdouts in this craft beer craze that’s been going on, but I have seen the light at the fun and funky KraftWork Bar. Marvelously complex beers that are just crying out to be part of a cocktail, a dessert, or a little roast meat glaze. The idea flood gate has opened!

One last hurrah before the weekend was out: the annual Post-Thanksgiving Lobster fest featuring the best ceviche ever. Because, after all, there is always room for lobster, right?


Thank you to everyone who shared meals, laughter, wine, food and love with us this weekend!

Dinner Power & A Beer Can Chicken

While our son was growing up, we worked crazy long hours. I’m not complaining, just stating a fact. One other fact of our life is that we always ate dinner together. Even if it meant me riding my bike home from Gleason’s Boxing Gym like a mad woman to get to Gourmet Garage before it closed, then making dinner by 9:30; that’s what happened at our house most every night.
I don’t think any of us ever really thought about it too much; it’s just the way it was. We watched a movie together while we ate, checked to make sure homework was done. Regular stuff.
Dinner has always been our connection time and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. We were creating bonds; just enjoying each other’s company at the end of the day. Nothing unusual about it; until you consider all the people I know who don’t eat together. Apparently that’s the trend. And that’s sad and crazy.

Fast forward about 6 or 7 years...Curtis is all grown up and living in Philadelphia. Last weekend he invited me over for dinner..no occasion, just dinner. I get a text message: “Oysters?”  Hell yeah! Who can turn down that sort of dinner invite??   “Beer can chicken?” came the next text. Well, I was a beer can chicken virgin and I thought it was time to see what all the fuss was about.

The oysters were superb: plump, full of brine, sweet. And washed down with a pink Cava, and chili pepper flecked mignonette, just about perfect.

But things got interesting when we pulled the beer can chicken off the grill. I didn’t know what to expect; how could a chicken be on the grill for so long and still be moist? Apparently that’s the miracle of the beer can, it literally steams and infuses the chicken with flavor. I know. I know. I’m late to the party. I’m not a beer drinker, so the whole idea seemed sort of....college frat boy.

It’s not. It’s a jumping off point for me to start exploring steaming foods. Recently I scoffed at someone on Mouthfuls asking about steaming a chicken. “Why would you want to?”, I asked.  I’m imagining pale white, flavorless meat.
Then I listened to Paula Wolfert extol the virtues of Moroccan style steamed foods. And finally, faced with a blackened beer can that had been extracted from the chicken, the light bulb went off.

I want to line up 4 or 5 chickens and do a taste test experiment. Would Guinness make more of a statement than Coors Lite? What about earl grey tea and ginger? What about wine and herbs? Is there a way to get a crispy skin on a beer can chicken?

So, do me a favor. Save up your empty beer cans, send me some, you keep some, and let’s have some fun experimenting!

PS It’s a good feeling to know that we’ve passed on the dinner gene to the spawn of our loins. Dinners are good.

Food Speak: NYC Style

Do you think we could view the world of food as a many faceted, sparkling crystal? Shiny in spots and grubby in others?  Do you think New Yorkers are a tribe unto their own? How does everyone afford to go out night after night? Why didn’t I didn’t know I could go to a different food event every day and night? 

I’ve been a part of some amazing and unique conversations while I’ve been in The City the past few weeks. As is par for the course with me, one question leads to another.

There is no question that food is HOT. The media, the buzz, the attitudes, the events remind me of the crazy days in the fashion world when money flowed and the world revolved around Kate Moss.  Linda Evangelista infamously declared she didn’t get out of bed for less than $10,000.  Now, I believe it s Giada De Laurentiis who is the reigning diva of the moment.

Celebrity chefs have usurped the Super Models. My, how the world has changed.  Or, my, how it really hasn’t changed at all; it is still just as silly as it ever was.
But, there is something else going on; there is an air of urgency, an awareness that we need to know more about what we are eating.


Our complacency with the way we eat is slowly being shrugged off, like a sleeping giant shaking its head and trying to make sense of what happened while he was napping.  Shake, shake: junk food isn’t really cheap if you factor in the cost of making people sick. Shake, shake: food tastes better when you eat it in season. Shake, shake: people forgot how to cook, but they’re waking up to it’s pleasures once again. Shake, shake: we’ve got a lot of people to feed on this planet, how we gonna do it?

On Tueday night, I listened to Kat Flinn, Pam Anderson and Lauren Shockey talk about their new books and their personal journeys that led them back to the home kitchen. The crowd roared when someone said, “Bring back Home-Ec classes!”


As part of the Culinary HIstorians series,I listened to one of our national treasures, Paula Wolfert, talk about the joys of Moroccan cooking, and how happy she is to bring Berber cooking the attention it deserves.  It was a sold out event and the audience was rapt, respectful and informed.

By Friday, I needed to round up food people for our #IACPNYC photo shoot.  The word went out and within 24 hours I had a skate boarding butcher, mustached mixologist, gorgeous coffee roaster, courageous author, vegan activist, home charcuterie maker, two adorable boys who wanted to play air guitar with a bunch of celery, and an urban farmer all lined up to have their photo taken for the cause. My sincere thanks to Holley Atkinson of  Slow Food NYC and Karin Endy of The Culinary Trust for helping me to gather the clan.


There was a kind of magic in the room as everyone shared their stories with us. These passionate people are doing amazing things and changing the way we think about food and drink.  I have the utmost respect and admiration for our photographer, Jason Blake, who conceived of this project and who let his curiosity and enthusiasm bring out the best in everyone.

One last shout out of the week to Jane Lerner of Smorgasburg/The Brooklyn Flea frame. What a great time and great food to be had in Brooklyn!  Thanks for getting me over there and opening my eyes and tastebuds.

There’s a phrase that keeps simmering in my brain as I work on the IACP conference and meet all these committed people: “May you live in interesting times.”  Well, I do believe I’ve hit the jackpot.

Grocery Shopping NYC Style: Seriously Whole Food

Grocery shopping in Manhattan is painful. It’s all about geography.  I love Fairway, don’t get me wrong, but it’s up in Harlem, which makes it a long bike ride and I can’t buy the super saver pack of toilet paper because there is no way it will fit on my bike.

Of course I have other options.  The very nearby Gourmet Garage is so staggeringly overpriced that I don’t understand why anyone goes there...except there is nothing else in the ‘hood’. Today’s special: $7.99 for one of those plastic clamshells of Driscoll strawberries. You thought I was kidding? I’m not.

There is the wacky Essex Street Market and a giant Whole Foods, but they also involve the bike, and blogging doesn’t exactly pay well enough to make Whole Foods my go-to grocery store.

Besides, there is something off-putting about a place that is just soooo wholesome, and organic and sustainable, and PC and, and, and.... I confess, I’m not a Food Saint and it’s all so seriously sanctimonious that it makes me want to eat a can of Pringles right now.

But, I had to break down and buy some food.  All I had in the fridge was a lone bottle of Bud that my nephew had left there over the summer, and Budweiser just doesn’t work as a coffee substitute in the morning. Maybe for some of us...

I decided to head over to Chinatown where there is a slightly scary Chinese grocery store.  It’s cleaner than it used to be and I think it’s now called Hong Kong Market. The name changes every once in awhile, probably when the tax audit man comes around.  It’s a little scary because you’ve got butchers whacking away at various animal parts, crazy dried stuff hanging over the frozen food section, and you can’t ask anyone a question because no one speaks a word of English.

As I’m walking down Mott St., checking out the vegetable stalls to see what looks good, there is a spiffy looking new storefront, aptly called: “New York Mart”.  It looks intriguing, so in the name of neighborhood research, I wander in.


Right at the entrance, there are two very long rows of open freezer cases with the usual Chinese dumpling suspects. Nice, but not earth shaking. It does however have the wildest video security screen I’ve ever seen. Are you going to tell me that anyone can spot a bad guy on this screen?

When I get to the end of the freezer aisle, I realize the place  has a whole other wing. I pass the very intriguing pots and pan section on my way into the hot prepared roasted meats area take-out area. The smell is amazing and I’m breaking rule no 1 of grocery shopping: never go shopping when you are hungry.

This opens up into to a massive fresh produce section, which is bordered by the enormous fresh meat selection and fresh fish area. They actually have live fresh shrimp, which are only in season for a short few weeks and are so, so delicious. Score!


Holy moley...I realize I have a real neighborhood grocery store! There is even a respectable looking bakery department.
No cheese section, but that’s OK.

There is nothing coy about calling this a place of “Whole Food”;  if you want head, feet, tongue, tail...name your animal and the whole beast will be there.

The bad news: I still can’t ask anyone a question. I have got to learn Mandarin one of these days.

The good news: I once again give thanks to the Goddess Serendipity because grocery shopping just got a little less painful.

New York Mart, 128 Mott St.

Dining, NYC Style!

Can I have my salad on the side, but I’d like the tomatoes separate.
I still want the tomatoes, I just don’t want them touching the greens.
Great.
And what’s in the salad dressing?
OK. Oh pumpkin seed, pomegranate. Fabulous. Sounds so yum.
Could you do me a favor, and just coat the plate with the dressing; don’t put it on top. OK?

Great. I’ll have the line caught tuna. It is line caught, right?
How do you prepare that?
Sous vide, then finished with a lightly smoked foraged cedar ash char?
Fabulous! Sounds so yum!

But, could you do that with just a half char? I really like just a touch of char on my tuna.
It can be so overpowering.

OH MY GOD! Truffle mashed potatoes?? Have to have ‘em. I love truffles...but they have to be super fresh, don’t you think, I mean otherwise what’s the whole point? I love French truffles, but they are so overpriced, I’m totally fine with Piedmontese.

I know, I’m being so picky, but I have a gluten intolerance so I need everything to be completely lactose free range. 

Look at this tweet. 2Tongues is here! It’s so rude to be tweeting during dinner...he’s having the trout....

This is like the best bread I’ve ever had. Try it with just a little smear of the butter and a sprinkle of the Black Sea salt...fabulous. I am SO into Black Sea salt. It has these anti-oxidant radicals, and ever since I started eating it I just have so much more energy.

This wine taste a little off? Mmmm...maybe not, maybe it’s just me. My taste buds are off after my last cleanse.

Oh. Oh. Can I taste that?? YUM. Like, that is just an amazing combination, but  when I do it at home, I like to finish it with a little fresh horseradish. It’s so cool, I can grown it in the bathroom, under the sink. My sink has a leak, so instead of wasting the water, I’m growing my own chanterelles and horseradish.

No, no dessert. I’m trying to be good because my yogi thinks processed sugar interferes with everything.

Thanks. I’ll just have some ice water. Three cubes.

Check please!