eG Foodblog: johnder, slkinsey, weinoo (2011) - A tale of two boroughs

[weinoo]

I'm enjoying this blog very much, swimming as it is in testosterone. Points have to be subtracted from Johnder because he didn't crispy-up any artichokes and because making a beautiful suck-up dessert was unfair. Also, and this isn't his fault, I just don't want a pair of yolks staring at me during dinner. The picture of his brothy stew looks fabulous and I would eat that in a New York minute. Although I couldn't identify some of the ingredients. You either cheated or have an awfully well-stocked pantry.

The risotto looked perfect and to me was the most appetizing of all the dishes. Many points for that one dish, especially because I don't actually like scallops and the chokes look especially crispy. I would be happy to have that along with Sam's simple kale for a meal, if Johnder would make me a cocktail. Many points for Sam's kale, since homey is good. Points also for starting to cook at 8pm. I would just have made a bowl of popcorn, at that point. As for cocktails, I'm impressed by anything more complicated than a glass of rye, neat.

Points to all for braving the weather to shop. I don't think my 93 yr old mother, who lives in midtown, has been out of her apt in the last three weeks. She orders take-out using her iPad. If I was tiger mother I might vote, but you are all deserving of praise.

Hi Katie Meadow,

We all have pantries that are amazingly well-stocked, so there was no cheating going on. I actually mulled over making a nutella pizza, but couldn't eat another dessert yesterday.

Props to your mom; any 93-year old mom who is using an iPad to order in has my vote .

And yeah, the risotto was near-perfect (imho)...thanks!

[Chris Amirault]

When I lived in Park Slope and worked at the corner of Broadway and Houston in the mid-1980s, a group of us at work would wait for the crummiest, nastiest day -- sleet preferable -- trudge the half-mile to Katz's, Yonah Shimmel, and Russ & Daughters, and treat ourselves to a well-deserved feast. The greatest lunch anyone on any planet could ever have. `

[weinoo]

Sam, that scallop crudo looks wonderful!

Mitch, I'm guessing you didn't buy any of their crazy Danish salmon? $52/lb! What kinds did you make off with?

http://blog.russanddaughters.com/2011/01/19/russ-daughters-once-again-has-double-smoked-danish-salmon/

That's a little steep for my blood (although Mario's dad's salumi are also crazy expensive).

I got gaspe, belly, whitefish salad, pickled herring, sable, mini bagels and a few more odds and eggs...I was out for under $50! Less than Eataly - lol.

This is a surprise for the wife tomorrow morning...but she'll probably read this at some point today.

[weinoo]

When I lived in Park Slope and worked at the corner of Broadway and Houston in the mid-1980s, a group of us at work would wait for the crummiest, nastiest day -- sleet preferable -- trudge the half-mile to Katz's, Yonah Shimmel, and Russ & Daughters, and treat ourselves to a well-deserved feast. The greatest lunch anyone on any planet could ever have.

The slush puddles on the corners are massive today. My hat's off to you. That' a three tums' meal.

[ambra]

Mitch, are you going to eat three dozen pierogies yourself?

[Katie Meadow]

We all have pantries that are amazingly well-stocked, so there was no cheating going on. I actually mulled over making a nutella pizza, but couldn't eat another dessert yesterday.

Mitch, you had me at nutella, but you lost me at pizza. I can't get my mind around nutella pizza. I've been known in desperation to just have a spoonful of nutella out of the jar when I needed something chocolate after dinner.

[weinoo]

Mitch, are you going to eat three dozen pierogies yourself?

Here's what I had for lunch...

First of all, is that the whitest plate of food you've ever seen? Consider the mustard a garnish, please.

There are 3 potato/onion periogi on the plate, 4 tortellini type things filled with mushroom (and whose name escapes me right now), along with a few thin slices of leftover pork roast.

The peirogi are belly blasters and if anyone can eat 3 dozen of them in a sitting, I'm buying.

[Shelby]

Oh geez, all of this wonderful looking food!

I loved all three meals, but I have to go with John for the eggs on the pasta and the clafouti. Looks so delicious!

Oh and the perogies...I've got to try my hand at making those. Do any of you ever make your own, or are they so good when you buy them that you just stick with that?

[kathryn]

Mitch, you had me at nutella, but you lost me at pizza. I can't get my mind around nutella pizza. I've been known in desperation to just have a spoonful of nutella out of the jar when I needed something chocolate after dinner.

Chocolate or Gianduja on sliced baguette is pretty common in Spain and Italy, no? Just expand that to plain foccacia bread.

Mario's dad's salumi was $31.80/lb yesterday for the special varieties like mole (cocoa & clove) and argumi (citrus and cardamom). Yikes.

[Pierogi]

Oh geez, all of this wonderful looking food!

I loved all three meals, but I have to go with John for the eggs on the pasta and the clafouti. Looks so delicious!

Oh and the perogies...I've got to try my hand at making those. Do any of you ever make your own, or are they so good when you buy them that you just stick with that?

Jumping in due to my screen name ...

I make pierogi every year at Christmas time. They're time consuming, but relatively easy. It's essentially an egg pasta dough, with various fillings. I usually do potato/onion/bacon/cheese, mushroom/sauerkraut, and ground beef/sauerkraut for mine. My mother used to make sweet ones, where the filling was ricotta cheese, egg and cinnamon. You fill the dough, fold it over to make the half-moon shape, crimp with a fork, then drop it into boiling, salted water until they float. You can eat them that way, or, as I prefer, drain them, and then pan saute them in melted, browned butter and some thin sliced onion. A dollop of sour cream doesn't hurt, either (since at that point your calorie/carb count for the day is shot to hell anyway).

Since you've got a pasta machine, it should be a breeze for you. I do the mixing of the dough, and most of the kneading, in my Kitchen Aid, but have to roll it out by hand, which is tedious.

From what I can see, its very very similar to making ravioli. Like everything else, homemade is superior to mass produced. Although I do cop to having a box of Mrs. T's frozen ones in my freezer most of the time. It helps when I get a pierogi craving in July.

The ones Mitch bought look pretty damn good, though, and pretty close to mine.

[Pierogi]

....First of all, is that the whitest plate of food you've ever seen? Consider the mustard a garnish, please.

HAH ! The friends I always make Polish Christmas Eve dinner for have teased me for years that, in addition to the tradition about the number of courses, number of guests, etc., the food can only be white. That mustard is far too colorful.

.....4 tortellini type things filled with mushroom (and whose name escapes me right now)....

I believe the tortellini things are "pelmeni".

[Shelby]

Oh geez, all of this wonderful looking food!

I loved all three meals, but I have to go with John for the eggs on the pasta and the clafouti. Looks so delicious!

Oh and the perogies...I've got to try my hand at making those. Do any of you ever make your own, or are they so good when you buy them that you just stick with that?

Jumping in due to my screen name ...

I make pierogi every year at Christmas time. They're time consuming, but relatively easy. It's essentially an egg pasta dough, with various fillings. I usually do potato/onion/bacon/cheese, mushroom/sauerkraut, and ground beef/sauerkraut for mine. My mother used to make sweet ones, where the filling was ricotta cheese, egg and cinnamon. You fill the dough, fold it over to make the half-moon shape, crimp with a fork, then drop it into boiling, salted water until they float. You can eat them that way, or, as I prefer, drain them, and then pan saute them in melted, browned butter and some thin sliced onion. A dollop of sour cream doesn't hurt, either (since at that point your calorie/carb count for the day is shot to hell anyway).

Since you've got a pasta machine, it should be a breeze for you. I do the mixing of the dough, and most of the kneading, in my Kitchen Aid, but have to roll it out by hand, which is tedious.

From what I can see, its very very similar to making ravioli. Like everything else, homemade is superior to mass produced. Although I do cop to having a box of Mrs. T's frozen ones in my freezer most of the time. It helps when I get a pierogi craving in July.

The ones Mitch bought look pretty damn good, though, and pretty close to mine.

LOL Thank you for your tips!!! Your fillings sound great.

I've never made ravioli, either. How do you seal the edges?

[weinoo]

Mitch, you had me at nutella, but you lost me at pizza. I can't get my mind around nutella pizza. I've been known in desperation to just have a spoonful of nutella out of the jar when I needed something chocolate after dinner.

Chocolate or Gianduja on sliced baguette is pretty common in Spain and Italy, no? Just expand that to plain foccacia bread.

Mario's dad's salumi was $31.80/lb yesterday for the special varieties like mole (cocoa & clove) and argumi (citrus and cardamom). Yikes

Yes, and the one I bought (fennel/pepper) was/is so damn good.

[weinoo]

That mustard is far too colorful.

Hmmm, you've given me an idea - white mustard .

.....4 tortellini type things filled with mushroom (and whose name escapes me right now)....

I believe the tortellini things are "pelmeni".

See, this is where I get confused. I think the place I was in today is Polish. When I asked what the dumplings were called, I don't think he said Pel'meni, because they're Russian in origin. Then I mentioned I was out in Brighton Beach and had some dumplings that started with a "V,"; he knew right away that it was Vereniki, another dumpling of Russian origin.

Any other name it could be?

[weinoo]

A dollop of sour cream doesn't hurt, either (since at that point your calorie/carb count for the day is shot to hell anyway).

The ones Mitch bought look pretty damn good, though, and pretty close to mine.

LOL. No, these are not light by any stretch of the imagination. We're not talking delicate ravioli here. And filled with mashed potatoes - well, you get the picture.

Delicious, none the less.

[Pierogi]

See, this is where I get confused. I think the place I was in today is Polish. When I asked what the dumplings were called, I don't think he said Pel'meni, because they're Russian in origin. Then I mentioned I was out in Brighton Beach and had some dumplings that started with a "V,"; he knew right away that it was Vereniki, another dumpling of Russian origin.

Any other name it could be?

Eureka ! Ain't the interwebs grand.....? They be USZKA !!

[nakji]

The peirogi are belly blasters and if anyone can eat 3 dozen of them in a sitting, I'm buying.

That's real winter food, right there. I like 'em with sour cream and applesauce, but more than three? Not happening.

[Pam R]

That mustard is far too colorful.

Hmmm, you've given me an idea - white mustard .

.....4 tortellini type things filled with mushroom (and whose name escapes me right now)....

I believe the tortellini things are "pelmeni".

See, this is where I get confused. I think the place I was in today is Polish. When I asked what the dumplings were called, I don't think he said Pel'meni, because they're Russian in origin. Then I mentioned I was out in Brighton Beach and had some dumplings that started with a "V,"; he knew right away that it was Vereniki, another dumpling of Russian origin.

Any other name it could be?

In my family (and at work) we call the potato/onion ones verenekes and the cottage cheese or meat filled ones kreplach (see my kreplach demo). The verenekes are shaped like perogies and the kreplach have the ends pinched together like a tortellini. Polish on one side, Russian on the other.

[johnder]

Hello from Vail Colorado! After getting gouged at JFK with my $10.32 pint of Stella it was an uneventful flight. Once we made our way to the hotel we went to look for some food. Not really knowing much about what was available we just picked the first place we came across which was called Bol. We should have turned around and walked out when we saw the dj but we were hungry.

We just had a bowl of olives ti start which to our surprise were actually roasted olives and came to the table scalding hot. We found this out unfortunately after we bit into some.

My friend had the margarita pizza going against my advice. I had a nondescript burger and fries. Overall it wasn't horrible and given the fact we got out of there for under 60 bucks which included 2 beers isn't bad. I have some pics I just need to figure out how to load them since I left the cable at home. Duh.

[Pierogi]

In my family (and at work) we call the potato/onion ones verenekes and the cottage cheese or meat filled ones kreplach (see my kreplach demo). The verenekes are shaped like perogies and the kreplach have the ends pinched together like a tortellini. Polish on one side, Russian on the other.

Hmmmmmmm. Well, it does, as Mitch says, get confusing in the Eastern European nomenclature and melding of traditions and cuisines. My only real experience is Polish on my Mom's side. And at that, in doing some amateur geneology, some of the immigration records for my grandfather say he came from Russia (!) even though he and the rest of the family claimed Poland.

I also have to admit, I am not an expert on Polish cuisine. What I've learned, I've pretty much learned on my own. My grandparents died either right after I was born, or when I was very young. My Mom didn't really care to learn about cooking until after she married the second time, which was after Grandma had passed. So, admittedly, there's none of the "at Granny's knee" sort of tradition going on with me. My grandmother did everything by memory, as did most of the old time cooks, so I have none of her recipes.

The one old Polish cookbook I have of my Mom's doesn't make mention of either verenekes or kreplach. But then it also doesn't mention uszka, either. More contemporary books I've found only talk about pierogies, and in all of the recipes I've seen, they can be stuffed with anything and still be called pierogies, so long as they're half-moon shaped, with the egg-based dough.

Kreplach I've always thought were Eastern European Jewish goodies. Maybe the difference is that Mom's family was Polish Catholic?

[Kent Wang]

Mitch: How much time do you spend apart from your wife? My girlfriend just went back to the US for two weeks and I already miss her.

I am lucky enough to know Garrett Oliver, brewmaster of the Brooklyn Brewery and he was generous enough to part with some amazing demerara sugar from the island of Mauritius a while back. This sugar, as Splificator can attest to, is the most amazing demerara sugar you have tasted. It has this rich, haunting flavor and just the right amount of sweetness.

Tell us more. What's it called? I love Billington's, which is also from Mauritius.

My mother, who is an avid ebay follower managed to score these silver old fashioned muddling spoons as well. They have the muddler bottom and bakelite knob. They are one of my prized cocktail possessions. I am lucky to have a set of 5.

What is the advantage of the muddling spoon over just a muddler?

[weinoo]

I have some pics I just need to figure out how to load them since I left the cable at home. Duh.

Arrrrgh . Mr. Kindle Goes to Vail and Leaves a Cable!

[weinoo]

I believe the tortellini things are "pelmeni".

See, this is where I get confused. I think the place I was in today is Polish. When I asked what the dumplings were called, I don't think he said Pel'meni, because they're Russian in origin. Then I mentioned I was out in Brighton Beach and had some dumplings that started with a "V,"; he knew right away that it was Vereniki, another dumpling of Russian origin.

Any other name it could be?

In my family (and at work) we call the potato/onion ones verenekes and the cottage cheese or meat filled ones kreplach (see my kreplach demo). The verenekes are shaped like perogies and the kreplach have the ends pinched together like a tortellini. Polish on one side, Russian on the other.

Of course, in my family (which has Russian, Polish, Austrian and who knows what other cultural background) the kreplach were always meat filled and served in soup; aka Jewish wontons .

[weinoo]

Mitch: How much time do you spend apart from your wife? My girlfriend just went back to the US for two weeks and I already miss her.

We're never apart for more than 5 days, but even that is painful. I go to DC every other week, stay a few days and then we come back to NY together for the weekend and on the weeks when I don't go down, Sig Eater comes back to NY for the weekend.

Can you say Bolt Bus?

[weinoo]

Good morning. It's not time for breakfast yet, so I wanted to show you a few more pictures of my neighborhood food options.

Remember Kossar's? That's the bialy place...

Here's a shot (through the window) of a few of their offerings...

Clockwise, from the top left...that's a pletzel, a bulka, a bialy and mini-pletzels.

On Fridays, they also offer these colorful braided challahs...

The store is quiet, the window almost bare, as they are ready to shut down for the Sabbath...they'll reopen on Saturday night, after sundown...

When I want to go to my supermarket, I step out the front-door and this is right up the block, another co-op owned property...

It's convenient, they carry Empire kosher poultry, and their produce department isn't all that bad, especially for citrus...

And a few greens...

Yesterday, lemons, grapefruit, and oranges were all 3 for $1.

Last night, I wanted to go to one of my favorite neighborhood eateries, where I would have dinner at the bar and bring home some food for Significant Eater...

That's Cafe Katja. Unfortunately, when I got there (early, I thought), the place was packed, and there wasn't a seat to be had...

So, instead they made me a Manhattan...

And I took my dinner home...plenty to share with Signifcant Eater when she arrived a bit later (and I was passed out on the couch )...

Roasted brussels sprouts and carrots, buttered spaetzel and a nice brat. How bad could that be?