Content about Uncategorized
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April 4, 2007
Think the world of wine is just sort of confusing? Watch us destroy what little faith you still had, and gain a few tips for your next quick stop at the wine store.
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March 28, 2007
Maybe you've heard about the Thomas Keller controversy over frozen fries. Well, we tried to make some at home--with mixed but interesting results. Check it out!
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March 21, 2007
Got a problem with screw caps on wine? Head on over to Serious Eats, where we'll try to talk some sense into you!
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March 14, 2007
No, we're not on spring break baking our pale flesh under the hot sun--though now that I mention that... Instead, Blake's been in Brooklyn. But he did get his hands on some of the first asparagus of the season. Check it out!
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March 7, 2007
Take a break from all this year end nostalgia and head over to Serious Eats to see how we learned to broil pizza. As you might imagine, we love it.
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February 28, 2007
We've been keeping busy. Tomorrow will return to our normally scheduled content, but check out what else we've been up to lately.
Recently, we've been setting the beer aside and dipping our toes into the cocktail lifestyle. Where to start? We believe the Old Fashioned is the great first cocktail, and we did a little research to find out.
Ever wondered what to do with 20-pounds of rice? Nick ponders this excessive question...
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February 21, 2007
Loyal readers! Check us out today on Ed Levine's Serious Eats, where we try to make our own Fruity Pebbles, fail, and settle on breakfast bars.
Last week we created a Valentine's Menu for Hard Up Lovers.
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January 23, 2007
Check out my Gothamist post on what to do with 10 pounds of hog for $6.91. If burritos don't tip your fancy, look back at our previous post about pulled pork sandwiches, which we devoured during the warm weather of Grill Week. Who else has nostalgia for those 80 degree days?
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January 17, 2007
If you drop by Fairway this weekend, pick up the specials on the way in and notice the ridiculous quote plastered on the front. Who would sink to such depths to promote a big grocery store? Well, me.
I've started writing a weekly column at Gothamist called the Coupon Clipper, a feature where I search for the best deals around the major grocery stores in New York City. My first Coupon Clipper raved about some nice shell steaks at Fairway...
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December 15, 2006
Sometimes, you get a craving for a totally inappropriate thing, at a totally inappropriate hour, and there's absolutely nothing you can do about it. Your mind is made up; the universe has decided. You submit to your instincts and go far, far out of your way to make it a reality. In New York, it's famously easy: you can call somebody, and 15 minutes later you've got banana ice cream with a side of pickles.
Call me pregnant, but the other...
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November 22, 2006
“In the United States, we have the grandest plat convivial of them all, the holiday turkey, which we share with 245 million other Americans, including the members of the armed forces, for whom the government spares no expense in jetting turkeys about the globe. There is an uncanny and intoxicating sense of oneness in enjoying a dish with a quarter billion of your fellows. No fussy eating allowed, no irrational preferences or aversions, no...
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November 17, 2006
I (Blake) turned 24 yesterday and, in celebration, my girlfriend thought up and orchestrated a gorgeous meal of French provincial food. From the surf to the turf, we ate, drank, and otherwise acted like shameless hedonists. Since I'm groggy and barely awake this morning, and don't much feel like working very hard, I'll just put up some pictures and perhaps post the recipes some other time. Above, the moment when we decided to put candles in...
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October 23, 2006
From Jeffrey Steingarten's essay "Explaining Espresso," via his collection It Must Have Been Something I Ate:
It's no wonder that humankind's most persistent activity over the past few hundred years has been inventing new ways of making coffee. How many coffeemakers you have at home depends on 1) your age 2) your love of coffee 3) your love of toys, and 4) your total inability to throw anything out. I get high scores in all four. But most...
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October 22, 2006
If you were functioning on the subway this morning, you probably saw a steady stream of backpacked kids parading around with wide mouths and unsure stares. That daze was the stern face of school, the great unknown and the official end to summer. Standing amongst those kids, I tried remember my own back-to-school feeling, the churning stomach, the moment when I knew it was all over, and that I'd have to enter those classrooms again.
I...
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October 11, 2006
As you probably know by now, the New York City 2007 Zagat Guide has been published. Josh over at The Food Section has comprehensive information and a comparison running all the way back to 1996, showing which restaurants have shuffled in the top ten, in both food rankings and popularity. I find it especially interesting that New York City's average meal cost on a global scale, ranking 4th in price, is far behind Tokyo ($75.07), London ($72.25...
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September 28, 2006
I never have any idea what to put in a salad. I know this much: make your own dressing, that's a given. Mushrooms are a good bet, as they soak up all the flavor and end up being remarkably delicious. Leaves: yes. Good oilve oil and vinegar (or lemon / lime juice). Salt, fresh pepper. Avocado if you feel fancy. Raw onions, just a bit, taste sweet when combined in with the vinegar.
There's this one salad dressing recipe.
It's beyond...
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September 26, 2006
On Sunday night, I was subconsciously looking for a kind of willing-the-weather-to-change activity. After a cool week of light sweaters and no sweating on the subway platform, Saturday and Sunday heralded the return of muggy weather, which was very unwelcome. The threat of rain provided sufficient justification for me to hole up and read and watch movies all weekend (save a trip to Bensonhurst to nab some homemade ravioli and salamis)--in...
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September 13, 2006
Hot Dogs are the universally pretty-tasty food. From middle school to college cafeteria dining, the fair ladies in hairnets have always had quite a hard time messing up the basic formula: buy from distributor, boil or steam, place in bun and send the smiling kids off to the condiments line to fight over packets of pickle relish, and who has to end up with the dijon mustard once the packets of preferable classic yellow are gone. Then that kid...
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September 11, 2006
And like that, it's over. Summer's stronghold has disappeared. The
days no longer top out in the 90's, the sweat only beads down my face
around noon, and that funk has actually started to lose it's grip on
the 14th Street Station. Last week I only walked on the side of the
street completely covered in shadow, and now I can walk wherever I
choose. Really, I'm not sad.
But I just got a grill, a real small grill. So I've decided to make
one...
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September 11, 2006
Billy Madison: I guess that Snack Pack is pretty good huh?
[the little kid smiles and nods]
Billy Madison: Wanna trade me the rest of it for this banana?
[the little kid smiles and shakes his head]
Billy Madison: You know how how hard I could beat you?
From Internet Movie Database.
In any serious discussion of school lunch food, you cannot forget to mention the packed lunch. Anyone who brown-bagged it remembers peeking into the lunch sack...
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August 31, 2006
Back in the days of heroicism and yore, legends and lore, shish kebab was invented. In between bouts of maiden-rescuing, treasure-finding, and windmill-attacking, the roaming horseman of the world's countryside decided that they hadn't done enough for mankind. One evening, as the stars shone brightly and the last few vagabonds were settling lazily against rocks for a pipe and a night's sleep, one awoke with a start. In a (literal) stroke of...
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August 18, 2006
We christened him Kurt and set about trying in vain to keep him alive. The ride back from Fairway was not long, but we needed some wine, and the car was quite stuffy and hot. Blake, strangely, began developing an affection for the creature, and cared for him so deeply he wouldn't leave him in the car alone. So we carried him into our liquor store, LeNell's, and asked the owners what wine would best go with him. And with two...
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August 16, 2006
Head on over to Cravings, a wonderful and passionate website published by Celia Cheng, based on the idea that passion for food can be "a consuming desire, a yearning, an urgent need." This month's feature is on food bloggers and we had the honor to be included. The blogs The Strong Buzz, The Food Section, The Hungry Cabbie, Cupcake Bakeshop, [Slice/A Hamburger Today], She Loves NY/Eater, Nordljus,...
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August 11, 2006
Both Nick and I are from the Midwest, proud of our work ethic and nice disposition, and find ourselves a rare breed out here in New York City. I'm not really sure what the conception is--rural, uneducated, whatever--but most people have no idea what exactly goes on in middle of this vast nation, and just assume that most of it is comprised entirely of corn.
Here is an example.
The other day we were at a friend's parent's house, a big,...
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June 27, 2006
When I started sweating heavily during my morning walk to the subway and began considering a set of "commute clothes," which I imagined would be composed of a pair of running shorts and a tanktop, I figured it was time to stop trying to drink a steaming hot cup of coffee on the way to work. There is simply nothing more miserable than thick New York humidity, being full of sweat, descending onto the stuffy subway platform, getting chills in...
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“So why did you write this book?” Bourdain began, gulping from a green bottle of beer. On Mount Olympus we gathered, two gods of the (celebrity) cooking universe and the scribe who got to tag along, having a casual conversation over beers in front of a packed audience at the New York Public library, at 42nd st. and 5th ave. It was billed as discussion of "kitchen secrets" as revealed in Bill Bufords new book Heat in...
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May 26, 2006
I'd eaten the good and the bad, the big and the small, and paid dearly as a result. The quest had gotten serious, and I was ready to admit defeat and bow at the altar of the shack if I had to eat another huge, dry burger. A true alternative to the Shake Shack seemed like an idea too good to be true.
But like all quests, the best inevitably came last, far away, in a place called 9th avenue. We'll call it the promised land....
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May 23, 2006
As the quest continues, the well reviewed alternatives start disappearing, and things get a little more treacherous. Big, greasy, disgusting, messes sprout up at every corner, making me want head back defeated into the line of shame at Shake Shack for some real food. But thanks to some random posting on Chowhound, I was given a little guidance. Today's search for the best alternative to Shake Shack featured charbroiled...
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I dream of Shake Shack. That beacon of irresistible American fare starts simmering in my brain around noon, when I can begin to smell the delectable combination of sirloin and brisket, the potato bun, the perfectly proportioned fresh ingredients, and that secret sauce. We all have our favorite lunch time spots, the local place around the corner, and this one is mine. Being just two blocks from my work, I get to see the shack...
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April 21, 2006
This Saturday over fifty restaurants will be offering $1 or $2 tasting plates, usually of their signature dish, from 1pm to 6pm in Chinatown. The event will happen, rain or shine (it looks like rain at this point), and we will be attending and reporting from the field, camera in tow. Mott, Mulberry, Baxter, Bayard, Pell, Doyers and Mosco Streets are the locations. Here is a pdf with all the locations on a map. Here...
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All content copyright Nick Kindelsperger and Blake Royer.
