nosh nook #186 - monday, november 30, 2009

food fight! (link)
11.29.09 - mission loc@l - by lydia chávez & armand emamdjomeh

i've lived here in nyc for the good part of a decade now & during that time, i've come to realize one thing about this city: we're the most important city in the country. we're the city that has tons of awesome crap to do 24/7, the city that foreigners think of when they think of the united states & as a result, when it comes to our city, we also have pretty big egos. as an example, back in early october, nyc chefs anthony bourdain & david chang were holding a discussion as part of the nyc wine & food festival entitled "i call bullshit." during it, a slightly-inebriated chang showed off that nyc hubris by saying "i will call bullshit on san francisco...there's only a handful of restaurants that are manipulating food...fucking every restaurant in san francisco is serving figs on a plate with nothing on it." folks out in san fran got totally peeved about his comment & the asia society even canceled a book-promoting appearance by chang.

it's been almost two months since chang made those comments about san fran but yesterday, after the ny times ran an article on friday that gave san fran chefs a chance to respond, mission loc@l, a news site out of san fran's mission district, decided to take umbrage at chang's comments. they shot back at chang, saying that "obviously [he's] spent little time in the mission, the incubator of food trends." really? the mission? an incubator? i mean, there's a lot of good food there, but c'mon now. they also note that, in contrast to nyc, the food in san fran is "served up at prices a good chunk of eaters can afford" & that "the new york union square organic market compared to the ferry building farmers market is just plain sad." both of those facts may be true, but i really think they missed the point behind what chang was saying: san fran isn't living up to its potential.

in fact, chang speaks pretty highly of san fran & the mission in particular. about a month back on the sf weekly blog, chang said that "there's no reason why san francisco shouldn't be the culinary capital of the world: you've got great ingredients, a food-savvy public - and i'm not just talking fine dining, but food in general. the mission has amazing, amazing ethnic food." he just thinks that san fran chefs need to step up their game. until they do so, he should be able to call bullshit on them without having to endure months worth of backlash. after all, his momofuku restaurants are considered some of the best restaurants in the best city in the country. sure some of it may be hype (he even called bullshit on the amount of hype during the "i call bullshit" event), but if the head of the top-rated restaurants in the country can't speak his mind about other chefs, who can? seriously, san francisco...it's time to move on.

nosh nook #185 - saturday, november 28, 2009

man finds 4.5 pound egg in the woods (link)
11.26.09 - WSAZ (WV) - via the a.p.

oh the joy of discovery! you know what i'm talking about. i'm talking about that joyous aha moment where you learn something & from that moment on, your world is changed. for instance, yesterday i discovered that i was more interested in sleeping until 3pm & drinking for the rest of the day, so for the second friday in a row, i wasn't up for tending to this here blog. still, i did manage to work about 50 PBRs & sweet karaoke versions of "kiss me deadly" & "white wedding" into my day & in doing so, discovered that my drunken karaoke skillz are pretty much unparalleled.

this past week in clendenin, WV (a town of about 100 people in the central part of the state) a man made a little discovery of his own. according to WSAZ, that man, sherman farley, was out in the woods hunting when he came across a 4.5 pound egg just chilling out in the middle of the woods. it was a rather odd discovery as "state naturalist jim phillips says there's no animal native to the state that lays eggs that big." a local ostrich & emu farmer thinks that it's probably an ostrich egg, but it was found three miles away from his farm & none of his birds have escaped, so like ostriches & emus, that explanation doesn't fly. regardless, "farley plans to keep it as a souvenir, although he'd still like to know what it is."

if i was him, i would have brought that egg back to my house, sat on it for a spell to see what hatched out of it & BAM!...mystery solved and instant pet. if he still wants to know where the egg came from, that's the only logical way to actually figure out its origin. it may just be from an ostrich or emu, but it also could be something totally awesome like an egg from a tyrannosaurus rex or an elephant. i'm assuming farley's not going to go the sitting on the egg route though, so i guess we'll just have to chalk it up as another west virginia oddity...just like their chili & slaw-covered hot dogs.

the musical fruit: movement #25.

the musical fruit: movement #25.
song: "all you need is love," the beatles
fruit: blackberries

due to the combo of the digital switchover & the death of my digital converter, my TV has been in non-functioning mode for a few weeks now, so i've been catching a bunch of my shows (heroes, glee, the daily show) via the interweb & with that comes the thrill of REPETITIVE PREROLL ADS! YAY! one ad i've been coming across at a disgustingly alarming rate is for blackberry. in it, we see a hip, twenty-something band (daytona lights) as they try to make it as rock stars, all while a cover of the beatles' "all you need is love" plays over the ad. guess what happens at the end. that's right. they totally make it. the tagline: "do what you love." the underlying message: "all you need is love...& a blackberry." there's nothing you can do that can't be done (without a blackberry). there's nothing you can sing that can't be sung (without a blackberry). it makes me want to punch a puppy. a nike revolution it is not. at least nike used the original song in their ad instead of some hipped-up cover, which is apparently not even by the band in the ad. i guess it's just another chapter (chapter 1, chapter 2) in a year of crass beatles' commercialism.

as for the original "all you need is love," it does not make me want to punch a puppy. in fact, my reaction is quite the opposite. the song was originally released as a single & then as part of their 1967 album the magical mystery tour, the album that came out in conjunction with the artsy beatles tv film of the same name. the song wasn't actually in the film, but when record execs wanted to release an album of songs in the film in the US, they didn't have enough material for a full record, so they added the song along with a bunch of other singles & B-sides. the band had first performed the song earlier in the year as part of our world (the first ever live, international satellite broadcast). they played it in a studio accompanied by an orchestra & a bunch of famous musicians (jagger, keith moon, etc) who sat on the floor watching & clapping & singing along. 400 million people all around the world were watching. it was 1967, the vietnam war was still raging & the simple message behind the song was absolutely undeniable. love is all you need. it sure as hell wasn't about selling handheld devices.

while i don't really need or want a handheld device, i did need & want a bunch of blackberries a few days back, so i headed on over to my local produce mart. will you take a look at that bowl? DAMN! SO good. they were about as fresh as you can get here in the city without picking them right off a bush. as a kid growing up in NH, we definitely did our fair share of berry picking, blackberries included, which made it easy to know that you were getting fresh, tasty ones. here in the city, you're often playing with fire. basically, if you're looking to munch on fresh blackberries, you have a short window of time before they become all mushy & disgusting. luckily, my purchased blackberries fell into the window of freshness, so i was able to fully enjoy them without worrying about them being nasty.

some folks can't stand blackberries because they have little seeds in them, but they don't bother me in the least. seriously, blackberries are awesome enough that you just need to suck it up & eat some seeds. i got a few seeds stuck in my teeth whilst eating them but when it boils down to it, they're full of antioxidants & vitamins & fiber & junk, so by eating 10-20 of them, i essentially counteracted all the shitty things i've put into my system over the past few days. did i mention that there's nothing you can do that can't be done (without blackberries)? it's true. i polished off that bowl pictured above & in the end, when i was done, i was able to perform multiple, non-witnessed, beatles-influenced cartwheels in my living room & ultimately realized that, in addition to needing the fruitiness of blackberries, all i need is love. now maybe if the two remaining beatles could use love to end all of the stupid wars that america's involved in, i could sleep easily at night & i wouldn't need fruity deliciousness (or a handheld device) to convince myself that everything's going to be ok. fuck iraq & afghanistan. there's nothing you can do that can't be done, including withdrawing from multiple unjust wars. love is all you need.

nosh nook #184 - thursday, november 26, 2009

butterballs or cheese balls, an online barometer (link)
11.25.09 - the ny times - by kim severson

happy thanksgiving, loyal eat!drink!snack! readers! if you're like me, you spent your thanksgiving moping around the house in your skivvies, drunk on wild turkey & watching the brady bunch thanksgiving episode over & over again on youtube. that bobby is one hell of a thespian! jk! that's not what really happened. in reality, this year i skipped the usual trip home to my parents' house for the holiday & instead spent it here in brooklyn with my younger brother, where we cooked a "proper" dinner like real adults. since it was just us two, we were beholden to no one & therefore able to cook whatever we damn well pleased. that meant no turkey, no gravy, no pumpkin pie. instead, we whipped up apple stuffed chicken breasts, roasted vegetables & potatoes, butternut squash & some stuffing, with a sinful chocolate trifle for dessert. the first two were recipes we decided on after perusing the internet & the butternut squash came into being with the help of internet consultation.

it turns out that we weren't the only ones consulting the internet this thanksgiving. according to the ny times, pretty much everyone & their mother turned to the web for thanksgiving recipes & how tos this year. since we're such a divided diverse country with varied regional cuisines, all this internet consultation makes it easy for marketers to track & analyze the nation's various thanksgiving trends. "if you are in oregon this thanksgiving, you stand a better than average chance of encountering tofurkey. more people in new york are looking for caterers to prepare the holiday meal than anywhere else in the country. live in the southeast? brace yourself for a big scoop of broccoli casserole." this info is marketing gold. kevin kells (head of consumer packaged goods for google) notes that "when you marketed in the past, you had to guess at the consumer’s motivation. now you have the answers to that right in front of you." i don't know about you, but i love when marketers can track my every move.

for what it's worth, marketers are also able to figure out when we do what we do around the holiday. as an example, since we're a nation of procrastinators & many of us waited until yesterday to start planning thanksgiving, allrecipes.com "built server capacity for the day before thanksgiving, then use only 50 percent of it the rest of the year." they also note that "pie searches got the most action on wednesday morning. but by 10 am, people began earnest hunts for sweet potato casserole and stuffing recipes. by noon, 100,000 people had searched for mashed potato recipes." gravy searches don't spike until around 3pm. i can only assume that come tomorrow, thanksgiving will already be forgotten, as the most popular search term will likely be some bullshit about black friday. oh wait...according to google trends, "black friday internet sales" is already #1. let the gluttonous pre-christmas consumption begin!

nosh nook #183 - wednesday, november 25, 2009

taco: the rules of engagement (link)
11.24.09 - washington city paper - by tim carman

tacos! i have this one friend & boy does she love tacos. girl is CRAZY about tacos. she'll call me up on the phone & we'll be talking & out of nowhere, she'll be all, "hey shawn. i want tacos." every time, i assure her that the only way to fix that is to eat some tacos. usually, that seems to help. i mean, why not? you can't beat a good taco. as long as it's well made & obviously soft shell, tacos are pretty much the bomb. there are a ton of good taco joints here in the city & at the moment, my fave is brooklyn's calexico (winner of the 2008 vendy awards). over the past few months, i've been making a bunch of stops there, specifically for the tacos. other than the twenty minute wait for two tacos, i have nothing but raves for them, with a special place in my heart reserved for their carne asada tacos.

tacowise, it looks like the d.c. area's doing pretty well these days. according to washington city paper (the only alternative newspaper in d.c.), there are a ton of places around the city where you can grab a couple of simple, tasty, mexican-style tacos. they might not be entirely authentic (many are made with pre-made, flour tortillas), but for the most part, they're still good. in rosslyn (VA), there's district taco, whose chorizo-and-bacon breakfast taco "possesses genuine crunch, provided by tiny crumbles of crispy bacon, which contrast perfectly with the fluffy yellow curds." dupont circle's tomatillo taqueria has barbacoa and carnitas tacos, "which rely on marinades and long, luscious braises to provide their succulence and understated flavor." taqueria la placita (in hyattsville, MD) has al pastor tacos that are apparently to die for.

la placita also goes into territories that aren't for the faint of stomach. they have oreja (ear) & cueritos (pig skin) tacos on the menu. respectively, they have "a pleasant cartilage crunch" & a "soft and unctuous" pork flavor. those are two qualities i never want in a taco. they're not the only ones in the city serving weird-ass tacos though. there's also a place on columbia road NW called pica taco, who has a lengua taco which, "may force you to reconsider your aversion to beef tongue." sorry, but i will never reconsider my aversion to beef tongue. i'm all for non-"leftover pieces of the animal" tacos, but if i'm ever eating ears & tongues & skin, i want it to be because i've survived a plane crash & have no other choice.