Oh the seventies

My mother used to be a waitress at the Tudor City Hotel, a pretty high end joint back in the day. The hotel's restaurant was a formal place, waitresses wore crisp white uniforms and followed strict serving codes. The chef of the place was a Chinese man, and I guess the pressure of managing a kitchen at a high end hotel got to him because he was always high out of his mind. On day he was chopping a cucumber when he was hit with a brilliant idea. Stopping to put down his knife he unzipped his pants and slapped down his little buddy onto the cutting board next to the cucumber. He then resumed cutting veggies dangerously close to his exposed penis, all the while laughing and shouting "I'm the best chef in the world!" Kitchens are crazy places.

Care package

I have a pound of hard salami from Katz's in my dorm room, fuck ramen noodles.

Mile End

Anyone who knows me is aware of my intense love of Jewish deli food. I'm taking a pound of Katz's hard salami with me to college, and of course my well worn Yonah Schimmel shirt. Naturally I was exited when the food scene was lit up by the recent opening of Mile End Delicatessen, located right off Atlantic ave in Brooklyn Boeurm Hill neighborhood. The deli gets its name from a part of Montreal known as Mile End which is home to the city's Jewish population. What makes Mile End distinctly Canadian are its Montreal bagels, which are smaller and sweeter then their New York counter parts. I was a little disappointed by the bagels, which Mile End has delivered daily from Canada, not because they tasted bad but because they don't taste that different then your normal NYC bagel. However that was my last complaint about Mile End. I don't like to get extreme in my reviews, but I really was blown away by the quality and the taste of the deli's modern takes on Jewish staples. While the bagels and poutine (french fries in gravy with cheese curds) make the deli Canadian, it is the innovative flavors combined with traditional cooking methods make Mile End stand out from the established Jewish eateries around the city. In contrast to a deli like Katz's Mile End's smoked meats are heavily flavored, with herbs and spices rubbed carefully into the skin of the meat as it is cured. Despite the flair that extra flavoring brings Mile End's deli remains no nonsense, much in the tradition of other Jewish Delis. The smoked meat, as complex as it is, is served with mustered on quality rye, no frills, just like it should be. Even though Mile End's bagels may be from Montreal, you can still get them with capers and thin sliced lox, and even a spread of creme fresh. The deli's decour follows its no nonsense attitude, with clean wood and metal surfaces, minimal decorations, and a deli counter in clear view of the kitchen. In many ways Mile End will feel familiar to fans of New York Jewish food, but it is certainly and exciting and delicious new niche for a cuisine known more for tradition then innovation.

Herbal seasoning

Big thanks to loaf for pointing out this article on weed use in NYC kitchens.

NY Times Article

King of Meat

High end meat is a craze. This sounds like an obvious statement, since when have people ever not liked good meat? But look at the popularity of places like Shake Shack, Good Burger, and the Spotted Pig and you can see that more an more New Yorkers are caring about the quality of their meet. High end burgers alone have created their own micro craze within the wider meat craze, driven partially by the success of places like Shake Shack, and partially by the availability of high end meat for relatively cheap prices. These two things (at least in New York) are largely a product of one wholesale meat company, LaFrieda Wholesale Meat Purveyors. Owned by brothers Pat and Mark, LaFrieda supplies, to name only a few, Shake Shack, Union Square Cafe, The Spotted Pig, Bluesmoke, and Five Napkin Burger. As described in their recent NY mag write up the brothers cornered the market by understanding the base desire of all high end restaurants, to give the customer something they can't get anywhere else. In line with this understanding is the LaFrieda's practice of giving each restaurant a specialized blend. So while the meat going to shake shack and the spotted pig comes from the same cows, and is made in the same machines, the differing rations of chuck, skirt steak, and rib create unique ground beef for each restaurant. As much credit as we give to chefs like Danny Meyers for bringing the burger into the limelight, these two have been quietly building up the burger from behind the scenes by throwing better and better meats into the grinder. The newest blend from the LaFrieda's in the Black Label Buger, which is made of ground dry aged rib eye. Grinding up this cut is the food equivalent of melting down a Ferrari because you need steel, at least to the traditional chef. But LaFrieda's willingness to experiment with blends could just be what is driving the latest New York food fad. If you look at LaFrieda's client list almost every restaurant is new, Pat LaFrieda even snubbed the old guard Peter Lugar's due to work ethic issues. It's not too far fetched to say that these brothers are the driving force behind the patties at most of New York new and notable restaurants.

Five Guys

INC magazine recently ran an interview with five guys creator and owner Jerry Murrell regarding his fast food burger philosophy. Interesting piece on fast food done responsibly.

Article

ODR's Best April Fools Joke Award

Despite the large number's of food related April fools jokes, including a rumored mustache hair net requirement for NYC bartenders, the Award for the best (and cruelest) joke has to go to the jerks who rumored the opening of an NYC In and out Burger. Apparently those semi funny dudes over at college humor put up "coming soon" signs all over Union square and hired fake In and Out employees to pass out pamphlets. According to an In and Out rep the brand will most likely never make the trip out to the east because their beef comes from Southern California, like there are no cows on the east coast or something.