Living in New York's East Village is a pretty sweet deal as far as food options go.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say I'll be eating one of these realllll soon.
I dig on "a sandwich with three layers of white bread, and we stuff it with original ingredients: caramelized onion with balsamic vinegar, tuna, shrimp, ham, artichokes, Fontina cheese."
FOTLC (that's "Friend of TheLadders.com"), Steve, sent me this link today.
Sadly, I could probably do the 9 beers in 9 innings (actually, I know I can, although the 16 oz part could be tough). But the hot dogs part is just abusive.
Welcome to New York.
On your left is the Statue of Liberty. And over there is Times Square.
Hungry? Great! Here's your $55 plate of MAC AND CHEESE.
In retrospect, I was pretty lucky growing up. My mom didn't let us have soda in the house, we definitely didn't eat sugar cereals, and, in general, my mom was pretty adamant about making things from scratch.
I pity the poor child who is eating these for breakfast. Or I suppose that in the most unhealthy of households, you could technically eat this for dessert as well. In other words, the rest of the world has nothing to worry about -- America will always be the fattest country out there.
Thanks to Bairam for the link!
There are few people in this world capable of living life to the fullest like my friend Ski2Sun (of Adventures in Getting Ready fame).
So when I read about the Big Pig Gig at Daisy May's BBQ, I knew there was one person, and one person only, to reach out to.
A quick background -- the Big Pig Gig is a feast designed for 12-15 people, complete with (duh) a roasted pig (head on), and a bunch of sides. As you can see from the blog post I linked to, they just cart out the entire pig and you go to town. Oh, and it costs $400.
Here's how it's described (for those of you too lazy to click the link):
The pig's cheeks were lusciously fatty, the loin meaty and the ribs, so perfect, smoky and so good to chew on. So good in fact, that we couldn't help but gnaw on it until the last drippy drop of meat juice had been sucked out.
Ski2Sun was, as I expected, very excited about the prospect of the Big Pig Gig. In fact, his first response was "You think we can find 12-15 willing parties or you want to just try to do it me and you?"
Two hours later, I get this email: "I have 12 people. We will make a reservation when you get back."
Ski2Sun, I salute you and whatever it is that makes you tick.
It's a nice Sunday afternoon at the zoo. You've got your family in tow, the sun is shining, and you're feeling pretty good about things.
Look at the giraffes!
How cool are the peacocks?
There's a bear running a monkey into the electric fence and then eating it! Oh wait...
Healthier mayo?
Please tell me this is true.
I love mayo. Sometimes I wish I were born a Belgian...
Back when you could actually get a seat, I ate a few times at Momofuku.
Turns out I was one of the trailblazers:
"There was a time, about six months after we opened, when we were about to go out of business," Mr. Chang said.
Glad to see the chef, David Chang, get some press, and his restaurant get the bodies in the seats (and waiting on the sidewalk outside). He always seemed like a nice guy, and what he does with Berkshire Pork is downright incredible.
If you look to one of my very first entries on this humble blog of mine, you'll see that I not only do I love a good burger, but I give rave reviews to Shake Shack.
This, however, is ridiculous.
I've been to Shake Shack before where the line has been long -- maybe 30 people -- but that line has to have at least a hundred people queued up for burger nirvana.
Seriously. Between this and Trader Joe's, where do people find the time?
Update: Dylan and Eugene report that they waited an hour and a half for their burger today, between the time they got in line to the time they first sunk their teeth into the bovine sweetness. Unreal.
I went to High School with this kid, Jonah Feld. He seemed like a normal dude, we hung in similar circles. We've run into each other from time to time back home in Boston. There's usually alcohol involved.
He ended up kicking my ass as a blogger.
Check out Burrito Blog, now going strong after a full year. Jonah, like many other burrito-philes, popped his burrito cherry at Anna's Taqueria in Brookline, MA (I'll take a Super Chile Verde, no cheese, no salsa, add hot sauce) but has since expanded his repetoire to include places in Washington, DC, NYC, and LA. Congrats, man.
Back to the Trader Joe's beat for a moment.
The crazy cats over at Fark ran a "Photoshop this display of bananas at Trader Joe's" contest last week.
There's some really funny stuff here...
For some reason, I found myself laughing out loud at the one with the little dancing banana.
As a rule, I try to avoid soda.
But it's a Friday and it's been a long week so I'm kicking back right now with a nice cool Sunkist. Ahhhh...
In case you're one of the two or three Manhattanites who haven't heard, Trader Joe's opened today just east of Union Sq.
For the uninitiated, TJ's (as the faithful call it) is a hippie/hipster grocery store that stocks mostly "Trader Joe's" brand items (or Trader Giotto's or Trader Ming's). The stuff there is (relatively) cheap and incredibly varied; it's worth checking out. Or, if you're like my Dad, it's apparently worth going every single day just "to get some milk". The entire staff also wears Hawaiian shirts, although the NYC store went with the Hawaiian t-shirts as opposed to the short-sleeve button-downs I've seen in other stores.
So, like any fearless young dude with designs on firing up the stove one of these days, I trekked out to "TJ's" this afternoon. I didn't actually buy anything -- the place was shoulder to shoulder with the young and old alike and the checkout line was at least 50 deep -- but if I ever do decide to stop just watching the Food Network and actually do some cooking, I'll be back.
Lest you think this place won't be eternally mobbed, like my Mom always says: "It's like they're giving away the stuff for free".
The infamous Madison Sq. Park hamburger "stand", the Shake Shack, reopens for business on March 21. To help you plan your next 24 days, the Danny Meyer team has provided us with this handy Countdown Clock:
Now the real question -- how does Shake Shack compare to the other burgers available in New York City?
A quick regression: there are many things that New York does well in the world of food. Pizza for one. Haute cuisine for another. There are some things that suck in New York: Mexican and BBQ (with R.U.B. being a decent exception) come to mind.
So, back to the burger. New York happens to have a ton of spots that put out a great burger (if you don't believe me, check out Chowhound for the debate).
My favorites, in order:
1) Molly's
2) Shake Shack
3) Paul's
4) McHale's (now closed)
5) Burger Joint
6) JG Melons
7) Cedar Tavern
There's definitely a few that I'm missing. I did notice a new "Burger Joint" at a bar called Scenic on Avenue B that I want to check out. One place that did not make the list is New York Burger Co. (or something like that). While the dipping sauces for the fries are great, the burger doesn't hold a candle to any place on the list above.
As soon as I figure out how to enable comments, all 3 of my readers can chime in as well.
Edit: Andrew has reminded me about Corner Bistro. I'd have to put that one probably between Burger Joint and JG Melons on my list, although on atmosphere alone, it is great.