I got 40$ on it whose with me?

Hot dog truck for sale

Finally a bar for wall street types

Plenty of restaurants have tried to court finance types by “speaking their language” — take Maloney & Porcelli’s expense-report generator and Smith & Wollensky’s stocks-for-steak offer. But I don't think anywhere has gone as far as this. A couple of suits ,one of them a former trader at Deutsche Bank and stock broker at Prime Charter LTD, and the other an econ major who has lately been a GM at some restaurants around Murray Hill, will open a stock exchange–themed lounge called Exchange Bar & Grill in Gramercy. The gimmick: The prices of drinks and bar food will fluctuate in 25-cent increments according to demand — meaning your wings could be $2 to $3 cheaper or more expensive depending on who else is ordering them. So it’s like the exchange floor but with drunk chicks! Will the place manage to lure away Stern school’s brightest from Tonic East? Ladies if your looking for the wall street type head on over to Gramercy, at end of your meal George Bush shows up and pays your bill then adds it to your taxes.

Brooklyn Restaurant week

This week is restaurant week in BK. This means at participating restaurants a 3 course dinner will cost you a cool 25$. There are a ton of places on the list but I'm going to shout out some of my favorites.

River Cafe (Dumbo): Food is iiiigght, but the view is unbeatable, right on the water looking out at downtown Manhattan. Ate here a long time ago and remember it being not worth the ridiculous price, but restaurant week should knock a good 30$ off what you would normally pay.

Applewood (Park Slope): A place which really takes the whole "seasonal" thing to heart. Applewood sources all it's ingredients to local (and some New England) farmers, and while the dishes are not particularly inventive their execution is top notch. I recommend anything with seafood, considering the restaurant goes to crazy lengths to ensure the freshness of their fish (lobsters shipped daily from maine).

Stone Park Cafe (Park Slope): My favorite on the list, Stone Park simply does everything well. The menu is inventive enough without trying too hard, and this is one of the places where your restaurant week discounts will go the farthest. Get the pan seared scallops.

for a complete list of participating restaurants go to visitbrooklyn.org

NY Mag best of New York

I generally respect NY mag's food opinions so I'm passing on their best of New York section. Be sure to check out the breakfast section featuring Breslin, which I talked about a few posts back.

Best of NY

The Last Meal of Francois Mitterrand

This is really an amazing story, and quite indicative of the intense passion and connection the French feel to their food. Francois Mitterrand was the longest serving prime minister of France, serving from 1981 to 1995. In 1981 Mitterrand was diagnosed with prostate cancer, which he hid from the french public for eleven years through false health reports. As his health began to leave him Mitterrand planed his last meal which included an illegal dish consisting of a thumb sized song bird. L'Ortolan, is a tiny bird long prized for it's fatty meat. Although the song bird is now protected across Europe at the time of Mitterrand's death the bird could still be netted and used for food. What made Mitterrand's dish illegal was the manner in which the bird was prepared. The bird is caught alive, and kept in a light-less box to disrupt it's feeding habits. For an entire month the bird gorges itself on figs, millet, and grapes, becoming too fat for flight. After the bird has swelled to four times its normal size, it is drowned alive in Armangac, the idea being that as it inhales the liquid it infuses the flavor in it's organs. Finally the bird is popped into the oven for 6 minutes and served. Even by French standards this is unusual cruelty, however the dish's illegal status hasn't stopped a cult from forming around it. Writer Michael Paternitti was served the dish by a Bordeaux chef who claimed it was his duty as a Frenchmen to cook the dish. Devotee's claim that they can taste the birds entire life as they chew it, the salty air of its Medditerranian migrations, the wheat of Morocco, the grapes of France. If it all sounds a little ridiculous it is, no doubt helped by the way in which the bird is eaten. A large napkin is placed over the diner's head and the dish, to create a fume hood which wafts the flavors up towards the nose, traditionally the napkin also hid the diner from God. Ideally the entire bird is placed in the mouth at once and chewed for a good 15 minutes, slowly breaking through the skin and into the Armagnac soaked organs. In the South of France, this is considered the highest of all dishes, and I have to admit it sounds like one of the strangest and most reflective dining experiences you can have. Sitting in a white tent, with tiny song bird under you, Paternitti likened it on NPR to being in a confessional. Mitterrand included the bird in a meal which included other French staples, such as oysters and Foie Gras. But he saved the bird for last, and after he had eaten his last bite he didn't eat another bite of food for ten days until he died. Brilliant