Summer Round-Up: Part I

It's nearly mid-September, and with the sudden drop in temperate and cool breeze, I'm finally beginning to acknowledge that summer has officially ended.  Well, almost.  While I'm eager to leave behind my sweaty walks to work, stifling subway rides and air conditioning wars with Gus, I'm not quite ready to bid farewell to the long hot days and freedom that summer brings.  So, to help bring some closure, I'm doing a round-up of my summer favorites: from recipes to restaurants and everything in between.

Recipes

Salad: Chicken Salad with New Potatoes and Haricot Verts, inspired by Sarabeth's restaurant

The KNK Farm Free-Range Chicken Salad at Sarabeth's West restaurant is insanely good. Gus's brother's girlfriend, Megan, is a manager at Sarabeth's upper west side location; and being the wonderful person she is, she has comped many delicious meals for us.  The menu is full of great dishes; but for me, the chicken salad takes the cake.  It combines fresh, tender pieces of chicken with green beans, red potatoes, peppers, button mushrooms, and greens in a shallot vinaigrette, artfully served in a red cabbage "bowl."

Sarabeth's chicken salad

I created a simplified version of this salad at home; and while it certainly doesn't touch the original, it makes for a great main course on a hot summer night: light yet substantial enough for a main course.

Serves: 2 very hungry people or 4 normal appetites 

- Ingredients -

Dressing/marinade (adapted from this Emeril recipe):
1 cup olive oil
1/2 cup sherry or red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 shallot, minced

6 chicken tenders
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 bunch new potatoes, scrubbed clean
1 package haricot verts
1 bag of mixed greens

- Method -

Whisk together the ingredients for the dressing.  Reserve half of the dressing for the salad and use the remainder to marinate the chicken overnight (ideally), or for a few hours minimum. When you're ready to cook, place the potatoes into a medium size sauce pan, adding enough water to cover them completely. Place the pan on high heat and boil the for 20 minutes, then drain. (Nifty tip: An easy way to know when the new potatoes are done is to poke a fork in the center of the largest potato, gently twist the fork. If the new potato breaks apart easily, they are fully cooked.) Meanwhile, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large plan and add the chicken, sauteing until just cooked through.  Steam the haricot verts in the microwave for 5 minutes.  Cut the chicken into small chunks and combine with the potatoes, haricot verts, salad greens, and dressing.

Emily's far inferior chicken salad

Side dish: Mexican corn salad from Food&Wine.com

Some friends started a pot-luck dinner tradition on Wednesday nights this summer, which was not only fun but a great opportunity to devote time to one aspect of a meal that maybe you wouldn't have the time to otherwise.  Side dishes, for me, usually consist of nothing more than sauteed vegetables; but on pot-luck night, I ventured beyond.  One of my favorite recipes was a Mexican corn salad, inspired by this recipe, which pairs it with grilled scallops (I unfortunately didn't get around to making those!)

There are many recipes for corn salad, but this one is great because it's incredibly easy and very tasty: The combination of mayo, chile powder, Tabasco, and lime juice creates a creamy consistency to bind the ingredients and a spicy tang, making it the perfect accompaniment to tacos and a cold beer.  I followed the recipe fairly closely, except, sans grill, I boiled the corn, skipped the cheese and scallops, and tossed it with some pepper and white rice.

Serves: 4-6

- Ingredients -

Dressing:
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 cup mayo (can also use plain greek yogurt)
1 teaspoon chile powder
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
Tabasco sauce, to taste
salt and pepper

2 medium ears of corn, husked
2 tablespoons red onion, diced
1 small bell pepper, diced (red or orange adds some nice color variety)
1 cup cooked white rice

-Method -

Whisk together the dressing, set aside.  Boil the corn to your liking (I find that 6-8 minutes is good if you like yours with just a bit of crunch).  Cut the kernels off the cob, and combine with remaining ingredients.  Stir dressing in.

Main course: Fresh Fettuccine With Chicken, Artichokes And Green Olives from Cookthink.com

Cookthink.com is one of my favorite recipe sites for many reasons.  It has an uncluttered, simple interface.  Helpful little sidebars suggesting accompaniments and explaining techniques and ingredients that I've never been clear on (like what exactly are Jerusalem artichokes?).  But the best part about it is the search tool, which allows you to search for recipes by typing in any combination of ingredients, plus the type of dish and/or cuisine you're looking for, and even the "mood" you're feeling.  And it usually yields fairly spot-on results.

This time I typed in "chicken, dinner, healthy" and came upon this recipe, a "light, elegant pasta dish, delicious in early spring when the day's are still a little chilly" - or late summer as it turns to fall.  I followed this recipe to a T, so no need to copy and paste - click here for the complete recipe; and spend some time on the site to explore while you're at it.

Dessert: Lemon bars from JoyofBaking.com

I've been wanting to try these lemon bars from JoyofBaking.com for a long time now, so I whipped them up one night for a potluck dinner and they tasted as amazing as I had imagined: a creamy lemony filling, both sweet and lip-smackingly tart, atop a thin crumbly shortbread crust that perfectly balances out the strong flavors. These treats can really be enjoyed year-round, but with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, it's a wonderfully refreshing summer dessert. Again, I followed this recipe exactly and the results were stunning, so click here for the recipe.  I unfortunately didn't get to take any pictures because they were literally gone before I knew it, but I have to leave you with one to properly tempt you.

Drink: Magic Hat Wacko

There are so many fantastic summer cocktails and sangrias I didn't make this summer (alas, the Porch Swing will have to wait until next year); but Magic Hat's summer brew filled the void.  Though not well-received by beer aficionados (they're just as bad as wine snobs), I found it to be the perfect summer brew: light and refreshing and just a touch sweet, with a bit of a bite from the carbonation.  It pairs well with spicy dishes and salty snacks or simply on its own. And while I love drinking out of a chilled bottle, this is a beer that begs to be served in a glass to show its wonderful hue from the beet juice. (Oh, and please check out Magic Hat's site because it's amazing, if a tad bit confusing.)

Image from this random site

That about sums it up for my summer recipes.  Stay tuned for Part II: summer round-up of places to go and things to eat in the Big Apple.

Impressions of Eataly

It's been open 7 days and I've managed to make 2 trips to Eataly - which is the minimum amount of time you need to wrap your mind around the boldness of such a feat.

Please note the orange crocs

I mistakenly went in with a purpose on my first visit - the day after it opened - to get a bite to eat with some friends in the span of a lunch break.  It went something like this: Scan the area.  Fresh food department.  Note 5 different types of lettuce, a waterfall display of nuts, an Italian market-style stand with shiny red tomatoes and hanging threads of garlic and dried hot peppers. Excited, determined people moving all around me like ants.  Negotiating the aisles with futuristic plastic shopping carts.  Realize people are actually shopping for produce.  Look up. Unhelpful signage pointing me in all different directions. Look down. Smile at the orange crocks on an employee's feet.  Walk left. Huge wheels of Italian cheeses behind a glass counter.  Crane head right. Espresso bar with gargantuan silver coffee canisters and people leaning elbows on the counter, tiny porcelain cups poised indifferently in their free hand. Turn left. A long line of people, waiting...for what? Spot two mosaic domes behind aisles upon aisles of dried imported pasta.  Ah, pizza. A 360 degree turn takes in a mini bookstore, shelves of single bottles of specialty beer, a long wine counter filled with people sipping elegantly on their lunch break.  Another turn and there's an insanely large fish amongst an assortment of other seafood, nestled in ice chips behind a counter.  Loaves of rustic, flour-topped bread behind another.  Attractive people laughing around a table with wooden boards of cheese, prosciutto, olives, and bread, immune to the madness around them.  Exhale.

It was enthralling and overwhelming, like I couldn't open my eyes wide enough to take everything in or even begin to understand how the whole thing operates.  Even more perplexing were all the people around me who apparently did.  Fortunately, I managed to try some food. After a hurried overview of the floor plan I waited in line for 40 minutes for an unexpectedly small funghi Taleggio panini ($7.40 with tax).  The panini was obviously prepared using superior ingredients - crunchy thin foccia baked on the premises; fresh, earthy mushrooms; the cheese soft and just the right amount of stinky.  If I hadn't consumed a small cup of warm chocolate - what tasted like the best chocolate I've ever had - while waiting in line ($1.00), I might have been more put-off by the size (and the waiting in line).  (Serious Eats took issue with the size of the paninis in a great post in which they sample all the different types.)  But it was very tasty and authentic nonetheless.

(The government isn't reading my blog Dad.

The second visit to Eataly was much more enjoyable, not only because I was mentally prepared for what was to come; but also because I was with my parents.  This is significant for the obvious reason that they're happy to buy me things I couldn't otherwise afford (peach preserves, imported olive oil, fresh baby artichoke hearts); but also because they take delight in things that I would normally bypass (in the case of the raw beef counter, with a grimaced look on my face).  My dad's irrepressible urge to speak to people, and my mom's knowledge of Italy and cooking, also came in handy.

Mt parents took to Eataly immediately. My dad's enthusiasm, unrivaled by most six-year-olds, was heightened by the pulsating energy of Eataly - and the espresso he drank within the first 10 minutes of stepping inside.  My mom, undeterred by the obscure differences between jam, preserves, and compote- rows and rows of which greeted her at the entrance - was simply in her element.  She began poring over food labels, stopping only to look for an empty shopping basket to stash her items.

We analyzed the cheese selection, watched a worker form ravioli by hand, watched another worker handle an alarming mound of bread dough, surveyed the beer, got the lowdown on the raw beef from an Italian-American sitting at the bar by himself (he was in Tuscany visiting his parents the day before), learned about pizza from the Neopolitan pizza makers (the pies cook for sixty SECONDS in the oven), spoke to the vegetable butcher about preparing baby artichokes, were amazed by all the pasta shapes we've never seen, tasted the amazing warm chocolate and an even more amazing chilled crema espresso that Gus ordered.

Mario Batali wanted Eataly to be the preeminent culinary destination for New York City - and a place to learn about Italian food and culture.  And he accomplished exactly that.  Yes, it's crazy.  Yes, it's filled with tourists.  But it's also filled with great energy, enthusiastic workers, and a lot of Italians - and people in the know - treating this place like they've been coming for years.  The best part about it is seeing all the stuff you never knew existed - raw beef, pasta shaped like coins, pear and balsamic vinegar spread - and of course getting to try them.  More pictures below.

Priceless

Photo from Gawker

Mayor Bloomberg showed up to the grand opening of Eataly last night.

Heading there now for lunch! (wish me luck)

banana cake with chocolate frosting

I love when Gus's birthday rolls around because it's one of the rare times that I make a two-layer cake.  This year he asked for a chocolate/banana combination - one of my favorite flavor pairings - so I was more than happy to oblige.  

Gus asked for a chocolate banana cake last year as well, but the results were less than stellar.  The layers were dense and deflated; the heavy ganache icing, though delicious, only flattened them further.  This year I consulted various sources for a good recipe, and settled on one I came across on a couple blogs, originally from Southern Cakes cookbook by Nancie McDermott.

It's a banana cake - composed of buttermilk, mashed ripe bananas, and the usual suspects - paired with a buttery chocolate frosting.  Now, before I proceed, I must admit I'm not very well versed in cakes (unless you count all the hours of  "Ace of Cakes" and Food Network Challenge cake editions I've absorbed).  And I have to semi-retract the statement made in my cupcakes post about baking relying almost solely on a recipe, because cakes - even amateur ones - are an art, requiring skill, time, and patience. It's difficult to get them to rise perfectly, to cook evenly, to achieve layers level, to ice properly.

That being said, I think this recipe is pretty uncomplicated - aside from the frosting issue, which I will address in a moment (and which can be avoided). I did the batter in my KitchenAid (Jean I am forever indebted to you for this wonderful machine); and barely folded in the mashed bananas before popping the cake pans into the oven.  They browned in 35 minutes.  It was minimal effort, really.

The frosting was a bit of a different story.  I was initially drawn to the recipe, in fact, for its frosting intrigue.  It calls for

½ cup (1 stick) butter

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1/3 cup evaporated milk or half-an-half

4 cups sifted confectioners sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

I liked the idea of using evaporated milk - I can see how it would add a nice consistency - but what I found even more interesting was the fact that the frosting is to be cooked on the stove.  Oh, and I guess this picture had something to do with my wanting to give it a go.

Unfortunately, my frosting did not turn out so well.  One reason may have been the lumpy cocoa powder I brought out of hibernation from my cabinet nook.  If you're going to try this frosting method, I would recommend buying a high quality cocoa powder and/or sifting it to get a fine consistency, because the lumps are really difficult to break up once you add it to the butter.  I would also advise keeping an overly cautious eye on the stove, stirring constantly over medium-low heat.  I thought I was being pretty attentive, but before I knew it I had puddles of liquefied cocoa sloshing around in a pot of simmering butter.

So I discarded it and opted for Plan B, which was to start over and skip the stove-top part altogether.  (One of the bloggers I read did the same thing.)  The result was basically a buttercream frosting, which ended up being the perfect consistency for the moist, springy banana cake.  The light, whipped consistency was also easy to spread. I smushed it around with a butter knife without paying too much attention and it came out pretty nice.

I'm going to go ahead and say it: I think this one was a success.  Despite the minor frosting blip, the cake came together really well. The slices cut perfectly, and four days later, it still tastes great chilled from the fridge.  This is one cake recipe I will likely make again.

Eataly!

Eataly's new location at 200 Fifth Ave (near 23rd st.)

Despite all the fantastic publicity it's been receiving since February, I just realized I didn't dedicate a post yet to Eataly, the "50,000 square-foot Slow Food–inspired Italian-food temple" that's aiming to be New York City's premier culinary mecca.  The mammoth grocery store/restaurant/center of enlightenment will be opening its doors to the public in mere days, on August 31st.  And it's going to be a mad-house.

And while this may sound so only-in-New-York, Eataly in fact, originated in Italy.

The Original, Photo from Eataly.it

The original Eataly- which will have been the largest artisanal Italian food and wine marketplace in the world post 8/31, opened just two years ago in Turin (or Torino), Italy and has since launched locations in Milan, Bologna, and Tokyo, among others.  The unstoppable founder and creator Oscar Farinetti teamed up with Mario Batali, Joe Bastianich, and Lidia Matticchio Bastianich of B&B Hospitality Group to open the NYC location in the Flatiron district - which will be nearly twice the size of the original.

B&B, Image from  Babble.com

So what exactly is Eataly? In a nutshell, "an extravaganza that will include a premier retail center for Italian delicacies and wine, a culinary educational center, and a diverse slate of boutique eateries." The philosophy is a democratizing one: Farinetti’s aim (according to his press release) is to make high-quality Italian foods available to everyone, at fair prices and in an environment where people can shop, taste and learn. Slow Food, defender of such things as "food biodiversity" and "taste education," is the strategic consultant.

There is an exhaustive amount of information out there on what undoubtedly will be an exhausting (though exciting!) place to visit; so I've sifted through various articles and blog posts to offer you some highlights:

- There will be seven "restaurants," 14 food stations, and a full "piazza" with a raw bar, fresh-cut prosciutto, and marble-topped tables. (Gothamist)

Integrated dining areas

- The only named restaurant (and the only dining area that will take reservations), is Manzo, a full-scale white-tablecloth Italian steakhouse with 80 (or 60?) seats. Michael Toscano, formerly of Babbo, is the chef. (Times) Mario says it will contain a beef bar, "akin to a sushi bar, that will have five or six different daily-changing preparations of raw Piedmontese beef" (only 5 or 6? pff)

Bread in Eataly.

- While the packaged goods are mostly imported from Italy (and most are at import prices), the meat and produce is all local. Vegetables come straight from rooftop farm Brooklyn Grange in Queens. (Gothamist) 

Hm, I'm not so sure this is a fair price

- Beer will be brewed right on the 300-seat rooftop microbrewery, which will be run by Dogfish Head. (Gothamist) The aim is to pair artisanal rustic, homemade beers with the artisanal, rustic cooking of Chef Mario Batali. (Dogfish Head)

- A wine shop has an entrance on 23rd Street, and access to a counter for takeout pizza will be on 24th Street. (Times)

- Next to the espresso bar is a wall of five iPads, each programmed to display news from Italian newspaper La Stampa. (Gothamist)

- Artist Jennifer Rubell (niece of Studio 54 owner Steve Rubell) is the designated "vegetable butcher" - she will clean and cut any produce you purchase, free of charge. (Post) Scraps will be gathered in a separate plastic baggie to be weighed at the front and of course, composted. (NYMag)

- Alex Pilas, who ran private events at Del Posto, is the executive chef of the entire operation. (Times)

- Eataly will contain a small school headed by dean Lidia Bastianich.  There will be seminars with artisans, chefs, and winemakers that culminate in special dinners, as well as those that focus on nutrition, sociology, and the chemistry of food. (Post)

Mmmm! Pizza will be made by guys from Naples called Rossopomodoro, similar to Keste style.

- Eataly will have an in-house travel agency to organize trips to visit Italian food and wine producers. (Post)

- About 1,000 individuals applied for managerial and salaried (as opposed to hourly wage) positions,  including many career changers and individuals from finance and other fields who have been laid off or just wanted a different job. (WSJ)

- Eataly NY is a $20 million project. (WSJ)

And finally, click here for an amazingly confusing layout from the NY Post.

I'm very excited (and a bit scared) to see what this place is all about, and whether it lives up to its founding principles.  Lucky for me, it's only a few blocks from work. I know where I'll be spending my lunch breaks!

All photos from Gothamist unless otherwise noted.

BREAKING NEWS: DR. CLAW IS SHUT DOWN

This is a sad day for New York.

Great lunch container

The Kitchn posted this super smart, super cute lunch container from the MoMa Store the other day and I want it!

From MoMa Store

From the product description:

This cleverly designed lunch box has a lockable clear lid with integrated dipping well, a sauce pot for salad dressing or condiments, a removable food compartment, and a fork.

A sauce pot for salad dressing? My prayers have finally been answered.  I can't tell you how many times I've had an olive oil/vinegar leak into my lunch bag...and that is not a great smell.

Yes, $22 might seem a little steep, but that's two Manhattan lunches, so really this is a great investment.  Plus people will be really impressed because it's from MoMa. (Or they'll just make fun of you because you're a huge dork like me)

The Pop-up Restaurant

After my Dr. Claw experience, covert food operations are bound to hold special intrigue, so this podcast caught my ear this morning.  It's about a renowned French chef, Ludo Lefebvre, who's created a whirlwind of excitement for Los Angeles foodies with his "guerilla style restaurant" called LudoBites - a temporary establishment that pops up in unassuming locations around LA, serving up high-end fare.

Basically, the restaurant opens in the evenings of a bakery or luncheon, and communicates its changing locations through its website.  It's currently in its fifth iteration, "LudoBites5.0," indicating its 5th location at a place called Gram & Papa's - a favorite LA lunch spot.

Not surprisingly, reservations are nearly impossible to snag. How impossible? Lefebvre's wife remarked to NPR that, "Most restaurants don't announce reservations and have 3,000 people come on at once. I mean, it's really like releasing a concert." Whoa!

And it seems as though this atypical arrangement is mutually beneficial.  NPR explains that, without the overhead costs of a regular restaurant, Lefebvre is able to offer fine cuisine at a much cheaper price; and it goes without saying that such a venture is much less risky for the chef than opening a full-fledged restaurant.  Plus it affords him the freedom to change the menu, location, aura, etc. any time he wants.

Like the underground lobster roll and grilled cheese operations in NYC, the pop-up restaurant has an ephemeral quality that creates a special dining experience: One Ludobites patron told NPR, "It's a great move to make people think that you'll never be able to do this again.  It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience."

Moreover, Lefebvre's website cites an article from LA Weekly saying “you can’t find it in Directory Assistance, and you can’t have dinner there tomorrow night. It has no address. So in a sense, Ludo Bites, the restaurant of Ludovic Lefebvre, doesn’t really exist.”  Amazing.  Listen to the podcast or read the full article from NPR here.

vanilla cupcakes

Yesterday was my good friend Danielle's birthday, so baking was obviously in store.  Normally I default to brownies for friend's birthdays, but this time I wanted to try something different, so I opted for cupcakes.

When it comes to baking, I think the end product is almost entirely reliant upon picking out a good recipe, because the rest is just about following instructions. But choosing a good recipe can be a difficult task.  In this case, I initially set out to recreate Magnolia's cupcakes (we had them a couple weeks ago at work and they were so good I continued to eat the stale ones that were leftover last week).  Surprisingly (or not), Magnolia has three cookbooks sharing the bakery owner's famous recipes, and the second one, More from Magnolia contains the recipe for vanilla cupcakes. But it calls for an alarming amount of sugar and butter; and after reading a lot of the negative reviews on Food Network ("SO OVERATED!!!!!!!"; "EXTREMELY sweet"; "spongy and dried out quickly") I started second-guessing it.

So I turned to JoyofBaking.com, one of my go-to sites for cakes, quick breads, and bars.  It's not the most sophisticated website, and the ads are pretty annoying, but they have consistently good, very manageable recipes and a nice little introduction explaining the history and summary of each offering.

Like many of its recipes, JoyofBaking's vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting requires few ingredients and the steps are simple and straightforward.  (In fact, this recipe is quite similar to the Magnolia recipe, but with less butter and sugar.)

I used a mini muffin pan for the bite-size variety (...and because that's the only size pan I have).  The recipe yielded almost exactly 24 mini cupcakes.

Pre-oven

The cupcakes browned at the edges after about 18 minutes.  (Please excuse the imperfect ones in this batch.)

Baking complete

The cake had a nice flavor and a decent texture: not too dry, not too spongy.  The frosting, on the other hand, turned out to be too sugary, though it had a nice, whipped consistency.  (From all of the cupcake reviews and "best of" lists, I gather it's really difficult to nail down a good vanilla frosting.)

Vanilla buttercream frosting

Though I hope to one day master the art of piping icing, I like the homemade look on cupcakes.  So I stuck to my tried-and-true method of massaging it around into dips and waves with a butter knife.  My mom instilled in me a suspicion towards food coloring, so I left these au natural and decided to accessorize instead.  I love making and buying things for Danielle because she's the girliest person I know, and doing such allows me to unleash my inner girly side.  So I went crazy with the pink sugar sprinkles and rainbow snowflakes (which, mind you, do contain food coloring...but it feels less deliberate this way).

Girlified

Probably not the best vanilla cupcake recipe out there, but it's a good, traditional, homemade one (and anyway they photograph nicely). Click here for the full recipe.  And please, if you have a great vanilla cupcake recipe, please share!

Christopher Walken Makes Chicken with Pears

Why have I not seen this video until now? I have no idea what the back story is, but this is simply amazing.



The parody is pretty spot on too:

Shake Shack

I finally hit up Shake Shack, the "modern day 'roadside' burger stand" that is the cause of a persistent line of people snaking around Madison Square Park. 

Photo from Gothamist

Unlike Danny Meyer's other establishments, Shake Shack is an unassuming venue that celebrates middle-American favorites like burgers, hot dogs, shakes, and fries - but fast food it is not. Customers must wait in a 20 to 30-minute line to order, then wait still until the food is freshly prepared; the burgers are made of "whole-muscle, no-trimmings, fresh-ground, antibiotic-and-hormone-free, source-verified-to-ranch-of-birth, choice-or-higher-grade Black Angus beef";  and meals are consumed in a spacious outdoor setting instead of a plastic booth.  A gourmet, environmentally friendly, health-conscious (sort of) McDonald's if you will.  Meyers told the Times he hopes his nouveau approach brings back the communal, human experience that fast food places have successfully stripped away.

Photo from Gothamist; Click here for the Shack Cam

And sure, waiting in line on a beautiful sunny day in Madison Square Park with my coworkers was a lot nicer than it would have been in a dingy McDonald's. But now, on to the food.  The Shake Shack menu is very small, limited mainly to the four foods aforementioned.  You'll have to bear with me because I don't eat hamburgers or hot dogs, so this really won't be a fair judging.  But Shake Shack does offer two vegetarian options, which happen to lie on complete opposite ends of the spectrum: the 'Shroom burger and the Garden dog.

I dont' think I could come up with a better description for option #1 than The Girl Who Ate Everything:

"...in theory [the 'Shroom burger] is a breaded and deep fried portobello mushroom 'patty' filled with muenster and cheddar cheese, but in reality is a giant slab of cheese wrapped in a barely perceptible layer of portobello mushroom, breaded and deep fried to a molten goo. If they got rid of the mushroom and just make a deep fried cheese slab burger it probably wouldn't taste that different, unless the mushroom provides crucial structural integrity."

The 'Shroom Burger (Doesn't it look like a giant falafel?) Photo from Foodspotting.com

The hot dog on the other hand, which doesn't even make it into their online menu, is literally a bun full of condiments. (um, why bother?)

So the 'Shroom burger it was.  And indeed, a solid bite through the hard, crunchy exterior of the "patty" unleashed a lava flow of hot gooey cheese.  Now, I love cheese. Love it. But the combination of muenster and cheddar was too dense and mild (think of a giant mozzarella stick with a higher cheese-to-breading ratio). About three-quarters of the way-through I felt it coagulating into a hard waxy lump in my stomach. I guess eating in the hot sun didn't help.

Photo from CayDigestNY,com (I should also mention another menu offering called the Shack Stack - a cheeseburger AND 'Shroom burger combo; not for the faint of heart)

I like the idea of having a creative, not-so-healthy vegetarian option for once.  After all, it is a burger stand.  But I think this creation would be more palatable if injected with something lighter and more flavorful, like a blue cheese or goat cheese; or mmm boursin.  And in a smaller quantity.

As for the shakes, Shake Shack only uses custard in their frozen creations (I swear Manhattan has something against ice cream); and try as I might to enjoy it, the hand-spun chocolate shake was much too sweet.  But if you love frozen custard this is the place for you: They also do sundaes, floats, and "concretes" a fitting name for the frozen custard equivalent of a blizzard or McFlurry. 

The whole shebang! (These pictures are just too good) Photo from umami

The fries and cheese fries are of the crinkle cut variety, with a very nice crunch.  All in all, it's a fun experience, and I admire the slow food, "democratizing" approach Danny Meyer has taken (I should mention the prices are very reasonable) And if you find your mouth is now watering for some burgers and fries, you soon may not have to make the trek to NYC to try it out.  In addition to its four locations in NYC (with more to come), S.S. has recently popped up in Miami, Saratoga Springs, and soon: Kuwait of all places.

Best New York Cupcakes from Serious Eats

Serious Eats recently compiled a list of NY's best cupcakes. And I never tire of "Best of" lists, so I just have to share! Click here for the slideshow.

Perfectly iced cupcakes from Tribeca Treats

Although I can't say I tried any of the cupcakes in the Top 12, I'm inclined to trust their judgment, or at least respect the list, because Serious Eats employed various judges, drew from a large indiscriminate pool of bakeries, lists their criteria, and admits to keeping track of everything in an excel sheet.  (This makes New York Magazine's list from last year, judged by the pastry chef of Gramercy Tavern, seem highly subjective in comparison.)

I think I just found my New Year's resolution for 2011 - a cupcake for every month!

New Book: What I Eat: Around the World in 80 Diets

Need a new coffee table book? Here you go. Photographer Peter Menzel and writer Faith D'Aluisio, a husband-wife duo that's apparently made some really great life decisions, have a new, very interesting-sounding book that debuted yesterday: What I Eat: Around the World in 80 Diets, a photographic collection featuring portraits of 80 people from 30 countries and the food they eat in one day.

"Courtesy" of Amazon.com

From the product description:

In this fascinating study of people and their diets, 80 profiles are organized by the total number of calories each person puts away in a day. Featuring a Japanese sumo wrestler, a Massai herdswoman, world-renowned Spanish chef Ferran Adria, an American competitive eater, and more, these compulsively readable personal stories also include demographic particulars, including age, activity level, height, and weight. Essays from Harvard primatologist Richard Wrangham, journalist Michael Pollan, and others discuss the implications of our modern diets for our health and for the planet.

Camel broker from Egypt, 3,200 calories/day

Indeed, D'Aluisio tells NPR she hopes the book gets people to compare and contrast their own diets with others around the world; Menzel hopes it helps people to understand their diets better and make better food choices. 

The NPR article offers a taste of some of the books insights. For instance, though a Brazilian fisherman and an American truck driver consume roughly the same number of calories a day (5,200-5,400...in other words, a lot), one is healthy and fit while the other is not (take a wild guess which is which).  Yes, the fisherman leads an active lifestyle and gets lots of fiber through foods like fish and beans, while the truck driver...well...drives all day and eats fast food hamburgers.  Maybe this doesn't seem that surprising on the surface, but it certainly underscores the importance of what constitutes our food, and not necessarily how many calories our food constitutes--something that, in this calorie-obsessive age of Lean Cuisine and mandated calorie-postings, we in the U.S. can easily forget.

Buddhist Monk, 4,900 calories/day

Other interesting tidbits include a Buddhist monk who gets a staggering number of calories through butter tea (that's water, butter, salt...and I suppose a few tea leaves), a woman in India who drinks her own pee as a cleansing ritual, and a woman in the U.K. who binges on 12,300 calories A DAY. (Ok, this is someone who could maybe benefit from some calorie-counting.)

Latvian music teacher, 3,600 calories a day

The couple also covered eating habits in their 2005 book Hungry Planet, in which they photographed 30 families in 24 countries surrounded by their typical week's worth of groceries.  (Also noteworthy is Menzel's Material World, in which he and 16 of the world's leading photographers captured an "average family" from 30 different countries, surrounded by their material goods arranged outside of their dwellings. I remember looking through this book as a kid--when you assume everyone else lives like you--and thinking it was the most eye-opening thing; I'm so happy to be reminded of it now.)

Photos from NPR.com (C) Peter Menzel