City Cheddar: February 2008

Friday, February 29, 2008

Wine on a Dime

Citysearch provides a roundup of cheap places to drink wine, you wino.

Savory on Video

Grub Street points us to Savory New York's web site that has online videos of tours of great New York Restaurants given by their proprietors.

Check out their video of Blue Hill, and once you're completely enticed, sign up for the actual tour of the grounds where the food is grown and raised, given by chef and co-owner Dan Barber. At $195 it seems expensive, but given the price of a meal at Blue Hill its actually not so bad.

Homemade Hummus Class

The New York Times says:
The finer points of making hummus will be taught by the chefs of the Hummus Place chain on Sunday from noon to 1 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan, 334 Amsterdam Avenue (76th Street). Reservations: (646) 505-5708. A tasting of hummus will be held from 1 to 3 p.m.

From 6 to 7:30, there will be a tasting of Israeli wines. All events are free.

Thursday, February 28, 2008

B-R-O-O-K-L-Y-N Puzzle Tournament

The 31st annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament is going to be hosted in Brooklyn this year! The tournament begins tomorrow (February 29th), and runs through March 2nd.

Color Me Informed

A visual guide to what each day's Empire State Building lights mean

The building's own schedule

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

I Dream of an Africa...

Time Out New York has a roundup of African restaurants in the city. Now THAT sounds like some excellent exotic food. There seems to be a lot of focus on this cuisine with the newcomer Merkato 55.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Jurassic Park the Play

I can't vouch for this one, but it certainly sounds interesting. Wham City is putting on Shoot Her! Jurrasic Park the Play at Market Hotel in Bushwick. For $7 and a subway ride, might be interesting. Monday, March 3, 9:30pm.

In the Cheese Caves

Gothamist takes a tour of Murray's cheese caves and finds the experience interesting and pungent. Tours are offered on the third Saturday of every month for $10 (including a tasting of two cheeses). Sounds like a great deal!

Friday, February 22, 2008

McSorley's Turns 154

Last weekend McSorley's Ale House, the oldest Irish tavern in NYC turned 154. It was established in 1854! unbelievable.

Foody

Author and TV personality Anthony Bourdain discusses the New York restaurant scene with Fodor's. You can also see him here kicking it with Eric Ripert (Le Bernadin) after a stint back in the kitchen at his restaurant, Les Halles, for his TV show No Reservations.

AM New York covers the top tasting menus in the city.

Upcoming at the Museums

Lots of anticipation for Cai Guo-Qiang's installation at the Guggenheim thru May 28th.

And beginning March 6th (thru June 1) is the Whitney's Biennial. Its so big this year its stretching to the Park Avenue Armory

Food around the World

Metromix tastes the cheap international eats available on Roosevelt Ave. in Queens. Grub Street provides some other Roosevelt Ave resources.

Time Out Magazine explores whether you could eat and drink out on only $20 for an entire week. Many of the solutions are cheap international foods.

The New York Times Travel Section covers New York’s ethnic markets and lists a few places to pick up groceries from around the world. Also, don't forget to check out Gothamist's occasional "At the Ethnic Market" column.

Dominican- Pueblo Deli Grocery, 129-135 Ridge Street, (212) 358-9989.
Indian- Foods of India, 121 Lexington Avenue, (212) 683-4419.
Thai- Bangkok Center Grocery, 104 Mosco Street, (212) 732-8916.
African- West African Grocery, 535 Ninth Avenue, (212) 594-7399.
Brazilian- Buzios Brasil Boutique, 20 West 46th Street, 2nd floor, (212) 869-6552.
Mexican- Tehuitzingo Deli Grocery, 695 10th Avenue, (212) 397-5956.
British- Myers of Keswick, 634 Hudson Street, (212) 691-4194.
Worldwide, but primarily Indian- Kalustyan’s, 123 Lexington Ave, 212-685-3451.
Korean- Han Ah Reum Supermarket. 25 W 32nd St, 212-695-3283.

The Bodega Chef: Picadillo

As a reminder...
Here are the rules: Any meat, any spices, the rest of the ingredients must be available from one of the bodegas within a 3 block radius from me.
sidenote: I typically keep chicken and ground beef or turkey in the freezer and I have a pretty decent collection of spices.

Picadillo is a traditional Cuban dish that lends its self particularly well to bodega cooking, as recipes vary greatly and many substitutions can be made. For example, the vinegar can be left out completely or replaced with any type of vinegar or even a little wine.
Its also a pretty quick dish to cook.

Picadillo

Ingredients

2 lbs ground beef
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 large white onion, diced
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 can diced tomatoes (can be replaced w/ another 8 oz. can tomato sauce)
1 Jalapeno (4-5 slices), diced*
¾ cup pimento stuffed olives, sliced
1/3 cup raisins
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar*
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar*
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon ground pepper
* If you have it

Preparation

1) Sauté diced onions and garlic in olive oil.
2) When onions become transparent, add ground beef, breaking it up as it browns.
3) When mostly browned, add tomato sauce, vinegars, and diced tomatoes and let simmer.
4) Add sliced olives, jalapeno, raisins and spices, continue simmering and stirring for approximately 20 minutes, or until most of the liquid has drained.
5) Serve with rice and black beans, in taco shells with lettuce and tomato, or in a roasted red pepper.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Butta

The New York Times covers local dairy producers making artisanal cream, cheese, butter and other dairy products. I would have thought it was overrated had I not tried Momofuku Ssam's bread and butter myself only a couple of weeks ago. I'm not used to being charged $8 for something that's usually brought to the table for free, but it was totally worth it, the butter was amazing, and it was a highlight of the meal! Ronnybrook Farms is also the dairy provider I used for my own cheesemaking foray.

Lunar Eclipse Tonight

Tonight there's going to be a total lunar eclipse. It should begin around 8:40 and the moon will be wholly blocked out by 10pm. Gothamist has some recommendations on where to check it out.

Friday, February 15, 2008

Early Manga

This weekend through Saturday, the Japan Society is hosting the "Globus Film Series: Dawn of Japanese Animation". which will show early manga films from the 1920's-1940's, which represent the beginnings of anime. via coolhunting

Chasing the Green Fairy in New York

Carrie points us to a Citysearch roundup of bars that take their Absinthe serving seriously. So if you want to sip it the way Van Gogh, Hemingway and Toulouse-Lautrec did, check out these bars.

The Warehouse

If you haven't heard yet, the Barney's Warehouse Sale began yesterday. Racked has full coverage of the annual opening day mess and expect big crowds this weekend. That said, its alwasy a great sale.

Friday, February 8, 2008

Fancypants Shirts

Fancypants shirtmaker Seize sur Vingt will be having a sample sale through February 17th. Mon-Sat, 11am-7pm, Sun noon-6pm with Dress shirts for $60-$80 (regularly $200), Italian suits $200-$600 (regularly $1,850) and cashmere sweaters $60-$90 (regularly $385) via Daily Candy

Seize sur Vingt
267 Elizabeth St.
(btwn Prince & Houston)

4foodies for chocolate

Eating club 4foodies is having an upcoming chocolate tasting event at my favorite chocolate shop in nyc. Michel Cluizel. They will also be tasting some of the co-located dessert studio's desserts.

(That's actually me, Carrie, Igor and Elizabeth in that picture above... we happened to be there the same night Ryan Sutton from Bloomberg news was reviewing the place!)