Tuscan Tuna-and-Bean Sandwiches

Gourmet calls this the best tuna sandwich they've "ever tasted."

20th Mar 2006

My copy of Gourmet Magazine arrives every month to a sneer and a laugh.  Talk of glorious trips to the ends of the earth, newly opened restaurants in Tokyo, and how to find that perfect $200 pasta maker, doesn't translate well into my cramped, cash-strapped life.  Yet, I read it every time.   Maybe it's my thirst for knowledge, or envy of having loads of disposable cash, but I nod approvingly...

Louie and Ernie''s

9th Mar 2006

1300 Crosby, Bronx, NY

P1010045_3

We awoke promptly at 9.  We decided this time to eat some breakfast before we left, slumped down into the plastic bench, and buried our head in books, our ears stuffed with headphones.  The subway didn’t emerge from the ground until halfway through our ride into the Bronx, and we couldn’t see any traces of the large skyscrapers that grounded us to home.

Much like o...

Di Fara''s

8th Mar 2006

1424 Avenue J, Midwood, Brooklyn

P1010080

Unfolding the MTA New York City transit map to reveal the uncharted Brooklyn belly beyond Prospect Park, we spotted a subway stop adjacent to our destination in Midwood, Brooklyn, New York.  We’d read about a small Italian man who, year after year, wins awards for his pizza--sometimes including declarations that it’s the best to be found in New York. ...

Patsy''s Pizzeria

7th Mar 2006

P1010008_1

Patsy’s lays buried in the middle of Spanish Harlem, a place we sane folk only venture through to get somewhere else--not because we're particularly scared--but because there is not much there.  This is not a hanging-out neighborhood.  Its name is not sexy.  Well, not yet.

Patsy's was founded by Pasquale Lancieri, student of Mr. Lombardi, in 1933 when this stretch east of Harlem was a still...

Welcome to Pizza Week!

6th Mar 2006

Pizza1_2

Even the U.S. Government admits that pizza may be the perfect food.  It is a balanced food pyramid and a near-faultless symmetry of tastes: fresh but robust, light yet filling, sweet and tangy...

Lombardi''s

6th Mar 2006

32 Spring St., between Mulberry and Mott Streets

lombardi s 1905b

Lombardi's.  The torch-bearer of New York, and even American, Pizza.  The ambassador, and the original.  Any right quest to find the best New York pizza must start here.

We are not too interested in lore, but here you go: the original was created in 1905.  Though there are claims that many Italian breadmakers were creating pizza pies with...

Roasted Pepper Potato Salad with Grilled Steak

1st Mar 2006

potatosaladgrilledsteak01

Food photography is an obsessive business.  Pictures are alluring, appetizing, what make somebody want to try the recipe.  There are times when, obsessed by lighting, aperture, and focus, we forget about the actual eating part.  Look at that piece of meat.  See the grains?  Looks good, eh?  Trust us, it was succulent.  There's nothing quite like a warm salad in the winter, sharp, crispy...

Egg Mayonnaise and Cress Sandwich

Recreating a fond memory from being poor in London

14th Feb 2006

Though egg mayonnaise is essentially the same thing as American egg salad, it doesn't taste like your average pitch-in.   The mayonnaise was creamy but it had a lightness to it, which probably has something to do with the proportion of ingredients.  Instead of deli-style New York sandwiches where a literal pound of meat is thrown on each sandwich--"It's like a cow with a cracker on either side,...

Pan-Seared Salmon with Pasta and Spinach Cream Sauce

This pasta is surprisingly light, a delightful characteristic considering the richness of the cream.

9th Feb 2006

Ssp1

While our enthusiasm for cooking has grown immensely over the past year, we still feel mostly reluctant to toss our recipe books aside and approach the task with our own original ideas and ingredients.  A sense of improvisation comes with confidence, and as the acting theorist Konstantin Stanislavski suggests, cultivating concentration and trusting one's instincts.  Instincts.  We don't do...

The Great Potato Contest

A bag of potatoes and a quest for the cheapest dinner possible

With minds planted firmly in the dirt, we probed the...

greatpotatocontest 00

With minds planted firmly in the dirt, we probed the starchy tuber for secrets buried within, all in search of the perfect cooked potato.   Armed with a bag of $2.99 Idahos, we set aflame preconcieved notions, sexed things up, and tried to find the courage (and stomachs) to eat nothing but potatoes like our poor brethren of the 19t...