Cel-Ray

After 25 years and a handful of weeks of living, I was offered my first can of Dr Brown's Cel-Ray soda.

Actually, I had never even heard of celery-flavored soda up until this past Easter. Tom and I had gone to his dad's girlfriend, Louise's lovely brownstone in Park Slope for dinner. Apparently this pop is big in the Jewish delicatessens in New York City (been around for a long long time) and parts of Florida (??). And whattayaknow, it tasted like carbonated celery.


Photo by flickr user yvespaul

Luckily I like celery, but would I drink a whole can again? Maybe if you gave me a Katz's Pastrami sandwich too. Just sayin'.

Oh and Easter dinner was pretty delicious. 2 different kinds of salads; Manicotti, ravioli and meatballs from Lenny's, a yummy spiral ham which I had the honor of doling out to everyone, and lots of desserts. I rolled out of there feeling just right.

PB Shake & Bacon Burger

SHAKE. AND. BACON.



A couple of days ago, my friend had sent me this link.
tl;dr: Shake Shack on the UWS had introduced a bacon peanut butter hamburger last week and they were going to offer it again, for $5.50. FOR ONE DAY ONLY.

Naturally, loving exclusivity and food, I decided to make a pilgrimage to the popular burger spot that was, for you non-New Yorkers, originally opened in Madison Sq Park, and up until recently in business only during spring/summer months. Now it's yearlong. They have a webcam on their site to let you know how long the lines are (they get pretty long).

It's pretty much the In-n-Out to California as it is to New York City. However, there are only 3 locations (in NY): Madison Square Park, W 77th and Columbus; and Citi Field (aka new Shea Stadium). Another is in Miami Beach. Each one has its' own menu. I happen to live a few blocks from the one that offered the special burger and I tried to recruit brave souls to join me.

Luckily I have a fellow Foodie friend, J.P. (the one who introduced me to Phở), and a friend who lives 2 stops away from me on the UWS, another J.P.

So today, I had gotten there a quarter to 2, and there was the unsurprisingly long line around the corner. J.P. Squared met me at around 2:15pm. I ordered for them so we could just sit down to eat once they got there.


The burger:


That is not cheese oozing out; that is peanut butter.

I think we had all agreed that it wasn't as bad as we imagined it to be. The peanut butter wasn't overpowering in any way, and it wasn't as messy as the article claimed. Plus, there wasn't lettuce or tomato (though I think lettuce would've helped cut the saltiness). Everything melded together in-between the soft bun so well it really just felt like eating your average burger. I had an Arnold Palmer (1/2 lemonade 1/2 Iced Tea) to go with it. JP1 got another cheeseburger in addition to his PB&Bacon Burger and a Mr Pibb with a splash of Root beer (due to a misunderstanding of his text message), and JP2 got the PB&B with a side of fries & a coke.

But oh no; we were not done yet. I really wanted to try their custard because the special flavor of the day was Pancake and Bacon. Gluttonous? Of course. Delicious? Naturally.


It really did taste like pancakes with bacon. JP1 got a Natural History "Crunch-stellation" (Custard, malt, Valrhona chocolate crunchies, and chocolate toffee). JP2 got a black & white shake.

The we went to Central Park and made fun of the rowers. Great Saturday, guys.

homemade popcorn!

Ladies and gents, I have made my first (and subsequently second and third) pot of popcorn tonight. I've always been a fan of the microwaveable kind since I could chew... I've tried 'em all - Orville Redenbacher, Act II, Jolly Time, Newman's Own, Pop Secret, Butter, 94% Fat Free Butter, Butter Lovers, Kettlecorn, Movie Theater Butter, Cheddar, Natural, etc. (My personal favorite would be Newman's Own Butter).

However, popping your own has been more appealing to me for several reasons:

-Recently, I put in a bag of popcorn, only to find 3 minutes later, an unpopped burnt bag of kernels. I blame it on my microwave more than the popcorn, but who knows. It happened twice with the same brand. I've found this to be a universal problem- you never know how long you should actually keep a bag in there.

-At $2.50-4.99 per box, it gets pricey and unless you're sharing it with people, you inevitably eat the entire bag like me (and regret it right after) or throw half of it out because microwaved popcorn, for some reason, cannot be saved. Does anyone else notice that after awhile, they get kind of chewy?

-It either has too much butter, or not enough.

-It sometimes has a weird chemical-y taste. ick.

-Plus, on Monday night, I went to Cinereach's Reach Out Film Fellowship screening at the Sunshine Cinema to take photographs and they had little bags of popcorn for guests to take. I had saved half and had it the next day at work. It was the perfect snack: Salty, crunchy and light.

So today, I got a bag of Jolly Time yellow corn kernels for $1.69. Not bad.
I poured a little vegetable oil in a medium-sized pot and accidentally poured too many kernels in. The instructions said there shouldn't be a layer more than one kernel high. Oops. I spooned some out and covered the pot... except it wasn't the right lid so it didn't fit properly and i was shaking the pot over a medium-high heat, trying to let steam out without too many kernels popping out. Soon, I heard that fantastic sizzle and POP! They popped pretty quickly after that and soon the pot was full of beautiful fluffy white popcorn. I spooned it out into another bowl but saw there were still alot of unpopped kernels left. so I heated it up a second time and hoped it wouldn't burn. They popped once more and I put down the pot but the lid fell off so I had popcorn popping EVERYWHERE. It was definitely like some cheesy scene out of a movie, but it was actually my life. I think this goes right up with that time I froze sparking wine and had the bottle explode all over my freezer with a white wine slush over everything. Whoops.

Anyway, the second batch had more of a burnt taste to them, but the first was great. I sprinkled a little salt and it was perfect. The one and maybe only time I ever had homemade popcorn was back when I was about 8 years old, at my friend Elizabeth's house upstate where they had an automatic popcorn maker. It was exciting at the time, but I wasn't used to just having salt on it. I have come a long way from the girl who got excited to pump her own butter at the movie theater. (by "girl", I mean when I was like 19 and got a free large bag of popcorn at the East Village movie theater because it was a student special; and a friend and I poured butter all over til it soaked through the bag but I digress...)

Lessons learned:
Do not put in too many kernels. Once that pot is full, any remaining popping kernels will end up on your stove and/or floor.
Salt when it is still hot.
A little oil goes a long way.
It is best shared with friends.

Aliseo Osteria del Borgo

Tom had been wanting to go to, what he kept calling "Aiello", which is actually Aliseo Osteria del Borgo in Prospect Heights for awhile now, and I am glad we finally got to get dinner there last night.

It is a cute albeit rustic brick-walled restaurant with empty wine bottles lining the wall. A charming old black & white photo of what I assumed was a family of 100 and pig figurines adorned the mantle of the (faux?) fire place next to our table.
It was a modest menu, but the items were listed in Italian with English descriptions beneath, and actually to my disappointment- a few items were not available, but there were still several left for us to choose from.

To start, we were served a bowl of Ricotta and olive oil with warm and soft foccacia and very thin melba toast-like pieces of bread that were addicting speckled with coarse salt around the edges.

We ended up sharing an appetizer (mini sesame seed-crusted meatballs served over a line of very basil-y pesto sauce and an orange-colored sauce that has yet to be determined (apricot-based? peach? I couldn't tell as the sesame seeds overpowered most of the flavors, but the meatballs tasted like meat.)

Then we shared a pasta and meat dish. I started with the homemade fettucini with beef ragu. and he started with the pork loin in a red cherry reduction with apples. The meat was cooked perfectly and tender and the fruit was a great addition to the saltiness of the pork- which can be attributed to what Tom calls, "An Italian Pinch of Salt". The pasta definitely had that pinch, but luckily we like salt.

For dessert, he ordered a chocolate tart that was very reminiscent of the chocolate ganache i've made that went wrong (but this was made right). I really liked the crust.

Plus he enjoyed his glasses of wine so overall rating? A+

Snap

Here is an interesting article from the NY Times about people taking photos of their meal before eating it. As you may have noticed, I haven't been posting pictures of meals I've ordered/made and that is because I don't take pictures of them anymore. It is more common than you know, and now that I don't feel silly taking pictures of a cheeseburger in mixed company because everyone else does it, I've all of a sudden lost interest.

However, since I have a new camera I might as well get some practice in. Perhaps I will carry it around with me more often as soon as I get a smaller bag to tote it around. Plus, there is a great quote in the article:
In 1825, the French philosopher and gourmand Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin wrote, “Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are.”

I would love to hear what people think of me after seeing pictures of what I eat: a fast food junkie? a picky eater? a sweet tooth? "bacon girl"?

Hundred Acres

Come here if you like pretty-looking restaurants (and places that serve free-range beef from the fingerlake region).
Do not come here if you expect good food.

Tom and I ate there Friday night and while everything on the menu sounded good, the lasagnette tasted weird and fell apart easily (it is not meant to be shared), his fish and chips were more chips than fish (Stick with Chip Shop!), and my $17 "Pasture-fed" burger was dry and tasted a little charred. The Vermont Cheddar did nothing for it! It seems to me that the chefs here know how small the portions are/bad the main course is and tries to offer an olive branch of a plateful of French Fries. We did actually like the french fries a lot, but how hard is it to fry potatoes?
Memo to self: stick with Shake Shack/Paul's/Fanelli's/Dumont/Stand/Blue 9, or really a hundred other places not Hundred Acres.

I know what you're asking, why did I order a $17 burger in the first place? 1) I like burgers. And honestly, if a restaurant can't get a burger right, I'm glad I didn't order any of the more expensive items on the menu.
Update: I saw this burger as one of the 82 Most Notable Burgers in NYC... suspect.

Also, we had a creeper as a waiter. I don't mean creepy (he was actually very nice), I mean, he snuck up behind Tom without him knowing until he started talking. As Tom said, he needs to carry a box of tic-tacs around (a la Seinfeld).

Cook Books!

I guess my friends know me pretty well because for my birthday, I got a great book from Lela called "Jam it, Pickle It, Cure It". It has a lot of fun food projects that I am dying to try out. (Including Make your own Bacon!)

I also got Momofuku by David Chang and Peter Meehan from Saela which I am SUPER DUPER excited about. I started reading it on the train and I guess I will have to raise money somehow because damn, am I hungry.

I happened to see both books recently at a totally awesome store in Brooklyn called powerHouse, and I really wanted to get them so thank you dear kismet! and thank you dear friends!

Meager Times

If you've ever played the widely-popular computer game of the early 90's, Oregon Trail, you'd understand me when I say you had to choose the food rations you'd be feeding your cart of people: Filling, Meager, or Bare-Bones.

Chooisng "Filling" would burn through your food supply and money a lot quicker; Bare Bones would make your people frail and weak, but at least your food would last longer. The downside? It could spoil/be stolen easier.

I'm sure many people chose meager, like I did. And whattayaknow, I can now apply it to real life!

Apparently I owe a LOT in taxes from last year; more than I would like to admit. Since coming to that conclusion, I've been trying to be more careful with spending. I haven't stepped foot inside a grocery store in a week, and I am living off of cheddar cheese (I bought a 2 lb block from Costco), pasta (got 15 boxes 1 lb at Costco) and rice- which in retrospect isn't a good diet, (with the carbs and sugar and all). But sadly, we live in a country where the cheapest food is often the unhealthiest, and good food is a luxury. I recently read an article about how a city was trying to limit the amount of fast food places in a certain area which I think is fair. In Brooklyn, I once saw 2 McDonalds on the same block- just around the corner from each other, with a KFC across the street. What happened to good ol fashioned cooking?

Ever since the summer of 2007 when I babysat for this family that ate gluten-free, low-sugar, all organic and healthy, I took on this No-Fast Food, no processed foods diet. It got to be expensive but I actually felt better and I think I ever lost some weight because of it. With a Fairway 3 blocks away, it is really easy to get carried away on the 2nd floor where their Organics are surprisingly reasonably priced (compared to Whole Foods). But I know a huge chunk of my expenditures go towards food and that has to stop.

I admit the other day I was starving and the cheapest thing around was a McDonald's. I ended up getting a big mac meal (which wasnt as big as I remembered it to be) for the first time in about 6 years (the McDonald's across the street from NYU had a 2 for 1 deal that we just couldn't pass up). It's terrible. I can't wait to start building up my savings so I can eat like a normal person again.