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eG Foodblog: SethG - Brooklyn, Bread and Back to Business


SethG

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Okay, breakfast today was:

multiple cups of Moka

and a slice of Pugliese with some butter.

Then we went over to see the friends I mentioned before who just had a baby. We met the new arrival and gave them our other loaf of Pugliese.

Then my wife went to work, and after I while I got my act together, gathered up Leah, and went to visit my wife at her office. I've been promising to bring Leah in for months, and today was our last chance before I return to work, so today we did it. (Nate stayed home with our babysitter.)

Leah and I took the train to Grand Central, and I thought we might as well take a look around the Grand Central Market. This is an upscale food market with several different vendors. I never shop there, but Robin occasionally picks something up on her way home. It is quite expensive, but some of the vendors have very good stuff.

Since we were there, I decided to check out Adriana's Caravan, which Bloviatrix mentioned above. This very compact shop sells all sorts of condiments and sauces from around the world (Ponzu, hot sauces, vinegars, whatever). They also have bakeware/serving dishes, and lots of other stuff I couldn't even see behind the counter. It isn't the kind of place in which one would want to browse, but if you need some fish sauce and don't have time to go to Chinatown, it's the place for you.

Here's a shot of their hot sauce shelf:

i7470.jpg

The Grand Central Market also has a Murray's Cheese Shop, which I assume is owned by the same folks who own the famous store in Greenwich Village by the same name. At Grand Central they have an impressive array of cheeses:

i7471.jpg

i7472.jpg

And I bet the prices are higher than in the Village.

If I were the perfect blogger, I would have contrived a way to link this tour somehow to my actual meals today, but since we're leaving town tonight, it just seemed like a waste to buy anything at the market. But I thought people who aren't from around here might like to see the photos.

After Leah and I met up with Robin at her office, we went to lunch at Burger Heaven on 49th Street. This seemed like a good idea at the time, but as my burger arrived it occurred to me that we've been eating a LOT of red meat this week. Not typical for us.

I ate my burger anyway.

i7473.jpg

No need to put this one on the burger club's list. It was overcooked and underseasoned. And the fries could've been a lot hotter. But it tasted like good meat and it was a nice size burger. I also had a gargantuan Coca-Cola.

I hope to post at least once more before we leave, about today's bread and whatever we do for dinner before we take off for my mother's house. I've tried to be quite talkative in my first three days, because you may just hear from me once a day for the rest of the week! My mother's connection is a dial-up.

"I don't mean to brag, I don't mean to boast;

but we like hot butter on our breakfast toast!"

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Seth, I was thinking of what a feast for the eyes and spirit it must have been for Leah.

I agree! I still remember going out to lunch with a coworker of my mum's (who just happened to be my kindergarten teacher and a nun to boot!) when I was five.

I bet Leah will remember this day and going to her mum's office and then to lunch! Going out for lunch is a very grown-up thing to do. :smile:

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Seth, I was thinking of what a feast for the eyes and spirit it must have been for Leah.

What a wonderful day. :smile:

You'd think so, wouldn't you?

She didn't much enjoy Grand Central. I thought she'd eat it up (I'm a sucker for great train stations), but she was a little cranky after the subway ride.

She cheered up by lunchtime, though, and had a very nice time reorganizing our table's sugar bowl.

Last night's dinner:

nothing really.

If you've ever tried to get two young children packed up and out of the house at bedtime, you might know the frenzy we experienced yesterday. We left about an hour later than we planned to, and all I managed to eat was what I snatched from Leah's dinner: some penne dressed with a dab of olive oil, a little baba ghanouj.

On the road, Robin and I munched on the fig/anise bread, which was very good. The figs from Sahadi's were delicious. And we made great time: 3 hours and forty minutes door to door from Brooklyn to Gaithersburg, MD (almost beating our record time of three and a half hours flat), and I drove within the posted spped limit the whole way! :rolleyes:

I'm going to make coffee now. I'll try to post again later today.

"I don't mean to brag, I don't mean to boast;

but we like hot butter on our breakfast toast!"

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So I should have entitled this blog: The Three Faces of Red Meat. Or The Cow and I.

We arrived to find that my mother had prepared a brisket for us to eat tonight.

But first, breakfast. A bagel, with cream cheese (Philadelphia) and some lox.

Lunch: a turkey sandwich with Swiss on Rye.

Dinner, the brisket (oof) with carrots and potatoes.

No photos, but tomorrow I may take some photos (and be able to post them) with the help of a surprise blog guest!

Plus: will grandma babysit and allow Robin and Seth to go out to dinner???? Stay tuned!

An aside: anybody see the NY Times article today about people who are obsessed with their blogs, even though nobody reads them? A little close to home for me. At least this week.

"I don't mean to brag, I don't mean to boast;

but we like hot butter on our breakfast toast!"

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What does Leah think of the cicadas? If you pick it up by the wings and blow on it's belly it will sing for you.

Edited to add: Of course your being read!!!

Edited by hillvalley (log)

True Heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic.

It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost,

but the urge to serve others at whatever cost. -Arthur Ashe

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An aside: anybody see the NY Times article today about people who are obsessed with their blogs, even though nobody reads them? A little close to home for me. At least this week.

Ummmm.....wrong. I'm reading. Just getting back to work myself (after 9-month forced hiatus) & spending more time at the computer doing actual (billable) work. I'm definitely reading; just don't have much time to post...

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An aside: anybody see the NY Times article today about people who are obsessed with their blogs, even though nobody reads them? A little close to home for me. At least this week.

Uh, some of us just like to watch :wink:

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An aside: anybody see the NY Times article today about people who are obsessed with their blogs, even though nobody reads them? A little close to home for me. At least this week.

I'm reading too Seth....but just like GGMora I haven't had much time to post until now...

Dave Valentin

Retired Explosive Detection K9 Handler

"So, what if we've got it all backwards?" asks my son.

"Got what backwards?" I ask.

"What if chicken tastes like rattlesnake?" My son, the Einstein of the family.

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An aside: anybody see the NY Times article today about people who are obsessed with their blogs, even though nobody reads them? A little close to home for me. At least this week.

Blovie stuck that article in front of my face and said "READ THIS!!" I pointed out that the blogs on egullet never get ignored.

BTW, I'm getting little red boxes with x's and I really would like to see the photos of the pugliese. :sad:

"Some people see a sheet of seaweed and want to be wrapped in it. I want to see it around a piece of fish."-- William Grimes

"People are bastard-coated bastards, with bastard filling." - Dr. Cox on Scrubs

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An aside:  anybody see the NY Times article today about people who are obsessed with their blogs, even though nobody reads them?  A little close to home for me.  At least this week.

Uh, some of us just like to watch :wink:

But that's just it. Or at least it was for me.

When I did my blog, I remember checking it constantly, to see if anyone new had responded.

Number of pageviews didn't matter so much, but new commentary and dialogue was invaluable.

Herb aka "herbacidal"

Tom is not my friend.

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I'm reading too. I like the look of your bread too. I live in London and my regular loaf is a pugliese from the Exeter Street Bakery that is damn fine, and looks quite close to yours.

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I didn't mean that no one's reading! I meant that the blog becomes an obsession-- despite its obvious lack of any importance whatsoever.

What does Leah think of the cicadas? If you pick it up by the wings and blow on it's belly it will sing for you.

We went to a playground yesterday and were immediately besieged by an apocalyptic swarm of those angry locusts. Their howling in the near distance was deafening. I'm not sure about this, but I thought I could smell them too. Nate was completely oblivious to these flying roaches in heat all around us, but after a while Leah got a little freaked out.

"I don't mean to brag, I don't mean to boast;

but we like hot butter on our breakfast toast!"

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I didn't mean that no one's reading! I meant that the blog becomes an obsession-- despite its obvious lack of any importance whatsoever.

It has the importance of providing us with food porn. I love all the photos.

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I didn't mean that no one's reading!  I meant that the blog becomes an obsession-- despite its obvious lack of any importance whatsoever.

It has the importance of providing us with food porn. I love all the photos.

You know, they say women aren't as "visually stimulated" as men....

but those pictures of all the lovely cheeses got me excited and raised my pulse. Viva la food porn!

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Seth, Leah and Nate dropped by this morning for a visit- and Seth brought me a loaf of his sourdough! :wub: It tastes just as delicious as it looks. Nate, Leah and Ian got along nicely, and Seth & I talked food for awhile.

I will post some pics when I get my film developed. :smile:

Heather Johnson

In Good Thyme

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I didn't mean that no one's reading! I meant that the blog becomes an obsession-- despite its obvious lack of any importance whatsoever

I think the jury is still out on the subject. I read that article. I see Sociology 301 teachers in twenty years lecture on the "early years" of blogging. We might all be unwittingly creating some sort of "classic" here on eG! You can't beat having a good conversation with great people all over the planet at once. :smile:

Hey Seth, that cheese shop had my wife drooling. I've never met a girl who didn't like cheese...

...nessa just proved my point! :biggrin:

"I took the habit of asking Pierre to bring me whatever looks good today and he would bring out the most wonderful things," - bleudauvergne

foodblogs: Dining Downeast I - Dining Downeast II

Portland Food Map.com

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Yep, Heather is this blog's mystery guest!

Not much to report about it, as I had to get back to my mother's after about an hour to meet my sister and a cousin. Had a very nice, brief visit. Ian was a most welcoming host to Leah! He shared his toys without a peep; I hope some day Leah will return the favor. We consumed some very tasty coffee and some of the sourdough I brought over. I took a couple pics of the loaves before I went over, but I can't post them until I get back to NYC.

They were standard white sourdoughs, with some wheat germ tossed in. I grabbed a jar of Ringo on our way out of Brooklyn, and reorganized my mother's fridge yesterday so that I could fit a bowl of refreshed starter and two retarding loaves in there, much to her apparent consternation. She seemed appeased today, though, when she tasted the finished product!

It was something of an adventure making the loaves in someone else's kitchen. I couldn't rely on some of my usual crutches: the scale, the stand mixer, oven/instant-read thermometers. I felt more like a true "village baker" than usual, adding water as I kneaded to correct the texture by feel, using a rest period ("autolyse") to let the dough organize itself a bit, and stretching and folding ("turning") the dough a couple times as it rose to encourage proper development. It's hard to slash a loaf when you can't find a single sharp knife in the kitchen, and I thought the loaves browned too fast, but with some panicky adjustments to the oven temp everything came out all right.

Lunch today was a (heated, frozen) Quiche Lorraine and a salad.

I'm still working on dinner. Heather suggested Addie's in Rockville, but when I called them I got an answering machine which said they close on the early side. Actually, maybe 10:00 it isn't early 'round here-- it is in NYC! We were hoping to go out after our kids are in bed so I'm not sure that's going to work. One thing's for certain: wherever we go, I'm not ordering steak!

"I don't mean to brag, I don't mean to boast;

but we like hot butter on our breakfast toast!"

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We ended up at Addie's after all.

I called again, and this time I spoke with a person who told us that we could show up at 9 p.m. and get served. So we went and had a good time.

The place is informal. It serves what I would call "New American" cuisine, with an emphasis on southern influences, although many of the fish dishes take a detour into Asian terrain. Being that we are in Maryland, Robin and I both started with crab appetizers. She got the crab cake, which I thought was very good. It had a very smooth texture and it held together well, but without any obvious mayonnaisish quality. I had a soft-shell crab speacial. It was prepared with some sort of wood something, and it came atop a succotashy corn thing. I thought it was even better than the crab cake.

We were a little disappointed in the entrees. Robin had cod, which was served in a sauce that also contained clams. I didn't taste it, but she questioned the clams' freshness and didn't think the dish united as a whole.

In keeping with the unintentional meat theme of this blog, I had a pork "Porterhouse," served with a bourbon sauce over grits and topped with a nest made of sweet potato. I had no specific complaints about the dish although I thought the pork steak was incredibly fatty (and I wasn't sure I minded). I did feel that it was just a bit too fussy, too busy; this seems to be our experience (here comes the provincial snobbery) whenever we eat in America outside New York City.

We had dessert: Robin had a white chocolate cake special. I disapprove of white chocolate and don't think it deserves to be called chocolate. So I wasn't the best audience for the dish, which I thought tasted like air. I had a real chocolate cake that I thought was wonderful.

We had a bottle of an Oregon Pinot Noir that we really liked.

Sorry, no pictures.

More to come: We're visitng some friends on Capitol Hill this morning, and I think we'll be going to some greenmarket or other. Later, I'm baking some more sourdough, this time a partial whole wheat.

And I gotta tag somebody, right?

"I don't mean to brag, I don't mean to boast;

but we like hot butter on our breakfast toast!"

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More to come: We're visitng some friends on Capitol Hill this morning, and I think we'll be going to some greenmarket or other. Later, I'm baking some more sourdough, this time a partial whole wheat.

Eastern Market!!! Hopefully your friends know to stand by the cheese guy and get samples. :smile:

True Heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic.

It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost,

but the urge to serve others at whatever cost. -Arthur Ashe

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