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by BS

Pork and Pesto Picnic Bites

Woo-hoo for BBQ season! If there”s one thing we Simmer-ers love most about the weather getting warmer, it”s the opportunity to cook outdoors all day, every day, And as much as we like to do epic BBQ experiments, this time of year the weekends are filled with so many cookouts and picnics that sometimes we just don”t have the time to get super fancy-pants for every grill session.

When I had to make something super-quick for a BBQ/picnic party after work this week, I improvised with what I had on hand and came up with this winner, which took me about 20 minutes total.

I had one of these Smithfield Seasoned Pork Tenderloins in Teriyaki Marinade (I”ve previously cooked these up in the slow cooker and in the oven) but they can actually be quick and easy too, if you just slice up casino pa natet thin pieces of the pre-seasoned pork and throw it on the grill for a few minutes on each side. Here”s what I did:

Pork and Pesto Picnic Bites

by Emily

Ultimate Summertime Cole Slaw

Let’s talk summer cookouts, specifically COLE SLAW. I love cole slaw in the summer. Like, looooove. I could eat a whole head of cabbage to myself if I put my mind/stomach to it. Maybe this is thanks to my Austrian/Hungarian heritage.

Or maybe it’s just because I make one of the best cole slaws ever. I want to be modest but oh well, the secret’s out, my cole slaw is the bomb! I get requests for this slaw all summer long. Make it for your friends and you will, too.

My cole slaw is so much better than anything you’d buy at a grocery store. It’s not creamy or heavy. It’s light and bright with a bit of an Asian flair. It’s healthy, it’s inexpensive (important when you’re making slaw for like 40 drunk & hungry people), and it comes together in seriously five minutes. And it’s full of avocado. That’s the real game changer right there.

Ultimate Summertime Cole Slaw

in Now Simmering / Recipe / Veggie 0 comments

by BS

Cocktail O’Clock: Sparkling Summer Sangria

I don’t know what it’s like where you guys are, but here in NYC it’s about ninety-way-too-freaking-sticky degrees, which IMHO means that Cocktail O’Clock is allowed to start before noon on this particular Friday.

Here’s a refreshing drink that’s tailor-made for these hot summer days. A spin on classic sangria, this recipe subs in Cava for white wine — a neat trick that adds a little fizz, without requiring too much of a spend, as the light Spanish bubbles are an excellent and affordable sub-in for Champagne.

Sparkling Summer Sangria

· 1/2 oz. simple syrup
· 1 orange quarter
· 1 lime quarter
· 1/2 oz. orange liqueur
· 1/2 oz. Spanish brandy
· 3-4 oz. Freixenet Carta Nevada Cava (chilled)
· 2 oz. lemon-lime soda (chilled)
· 1 maraschino cherry

Muddle fruit slices in a shaker cup with simple syrup.

Add liqueur and brandy with ice.

Shake, then strain into a cocktail glass.

Add soda and top off with Cava.

Drop in cherry or secure to an orange wedge using a toothpick, to decorate the rim of each glass.

Alternatively, multiply everything by 5 (our favorite rule!) and put it all together in a pitcher.

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Heirloom Tomato and Fried Egg Pizza ABGB

by Emily

Food Porn of the Day: Fried Egg is a Glorious Thing

Why not follow up last week’s pizza porn with yet more pizza porn? This pie hails from Austin Beer Garden Brewing Co. in – you guessed it – Austin, Texas. And yeah, this isn’t the first time I’ve blogged about fried egg on pizza, but hear me out.

This bad boy was served in the middle of a sunny beer garden, fresh from the oven, topped with fresh basil, portobello mushrooms, goat ricotta, caramelized onions, and the most perfect fried egg you’ve ever seen, complete with velvety liquid yolk. It’s best enjoyed with a cold craft brew (may I suggest ABGB’s Day Trip Pale Ale). After seeing/tasting this beauty, why would you ever NOT order a fried egg on your pizza?

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by Emily

Endless Roadtrip USVI: Ultimate Bar Food Round-Up

While you probably think of exotic tropical flavors when imagining Caribbean cuisine, Red Hook, St. Thomas’ East End hub, is no stranger to delicious bar food. From burgers to pizza to sandwiches to pupu platters, Red Hook really has anything you need for your drunk munchies and/or hungover desperation meals.

in Food Travel / Now Simmering 0 comments

by BS

This Exists: Pizza-Topped Pizza

Photos: Vinnie’s Pizza

Last week, it was a slow day at a Williamsburg, Brooklyn pizzeria and the cooks decided to try something new: whipping up mini-sized pizzas and layering them on top of other pizzas. It was really just a joke — until they put a photo on Instagram, bloggers picked up the “news” and crazed customers demanded a taste of this pizza-topped. So Vinnie’s Pizzeria actually started offering “pizza on pizza” and in just a few days have sold some 400 slices. America: Is there anything we can’t do?

Read the full story on DNA Info.

in Cheese / New / Restaurants / Trends 0 comments

by BS

The Endless Road Trip: Our Top 5 Favorite Cities for Eating

At Endless Simmer, we love to travel, and when we travel, we love nothing more than eating. In fact, when we do visit a new place we almost can’t think of anything to do except for EAT. Museums? Um, sure…maybe if you need to kill some time in between meals. In our travels across six continents, we’ve sampled street food and Michelin-starred cuisine in hundreds of cities. But these five stand out as the very best for foodies.

5. Melbourne

Australia often gets a knack for having bland food, but that bad rep is not deserved. From deep-fried dagwood dogs to burgers with the works—which redefine what the works are—those Aussies come up with some pretty crazy concoctions. And super-hip Melbourne, more than anywhere, makes good use of the upside-down continent’s year-round harvest, with over-the-top farm-to-table meals on seemingly every street corner.

4. Paris

People (whiny Americans like us, mostly) love to complain about how Paris cuisine ain’t what it used to be. You can’t get a good steak frites anywhere these days; the croissants are often of middling quality; and the bistro are too packed with…well, whiny Americans like us. But despite the perception, eating in Paris has never really been about the fancy restaurants. It’s about popping into random boulangeries, grabbing a fresh-baked loaf of bread and a stinky hunk of cheese from the nearest fromagerie, and sitting in an otherworldly pristine park all day. Oh, and it’s about the macaroons. Obviously.

in Food Travel / Lists 1 comments

by Emily

Endless Roadtrip USVI: BBQ Off the Grid

As luck would have it, the BEST food truck in St. Thomas (or quite possibly, anywhere ever) just happened to be located in the entrance of Sapphire Village, right where we were staying on the East End. When we were in the Virgin Islands last month, we heard they were gearing up to open a second truck on nearby Coki Beach as well. Double your chances to get in on this mouth-watering meat wonderland!

Off the Grid is a BBQ truck with a vibrant Caribbean twist. Pay only $15 for all-you-can-eat meats of the day such as wings, pork belly, brisket, pulled pork (A++++!) ribs, and mussels. Yes friends, BBQ mussels, and they were amazing, basted in a sticky-spicy-sweet sauce. BBQ sides are Caribbean style as well: gooey baked sweet potatoes, spicy-creamy rainbow slaw, rice and peas, etc.

Fellow vacation lushes, don’t worry, because Off the Grid also offers a bevy of booze. I, of course, opted for the bottomless mimosas (mixed with a homemade tropical fruit blend instead of your average orange juice) but they had fresh margs, beer, sangria, the whole shebang. As you probably know, Austin is ridiculously rife with BBQ and food trucks, so you might think an Austinite wouldn’t be able to find the novelty in eating at a BBQ truck on vacation, but this was worlds away from Texas BBQ. Plus, no food truck in Texas has this view.

Note: Off the Grid opens around 11am and closes when they run out of meat, often around 4-5pm. So plan on a big lunch/brunch here, not dinner. Bring your appetite and steel your liver.

More Endless Roadtrip USVI:
1. Caribbean Comfort at Gladys Cafe
2. Bones Rum Shop

in Food Travel / Pig / Restaurants 1 comments

by Emily

Endless Roadtrip USVI: Bones Rum Shop

When in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, one of my personal highlights is Bones Rum Shop on the waterfront. Bones is super smooth, produced right on St. Thomas using their centuries-old recipe, small batch distilling, and oak barrel aging.

But like I mentioned in my last USVI post, the islands are full of rum. So what’s so special about Bones? It’s SERVE YOURSELF, YO. You pick out your flavor of virgin frozen daiquiri, then they HAND YOU A BOTTLE OF RUM and then you POUR YOUR OWN RUM INTO YOUR DRINK. When Bones made their business plan, they clearly never realized I was coming to town. You do NOT give me that kind of power if you know what’s good for you.

FYI, travelers – Bones is somewhat hard to find online and I don’t know their exact address, but if you’re on the main waterfront, just look for their pirate sign. You can’t miss it.

More Endless Roadtrip USVI:
1. Caribbean Comfort at Gladys Cafe

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by Emily

Endless Roadtrip USVI: Caribbean Comfort at Gladys Cafe

Last month Rob and I embarked on a big, amazing Caribbean vacation to USVI. We mainly stayed in St. Thomas but went to St. John for a few days, Water Island for one day, and also embarked on a boating excursion around the BVI: Virgin Gorda, The Baths, Cooper Island, Norman Island, and Jost Van Dyke. Do I recommend it? ABSOLUTELY. The Virgin Islands were a badass vacation: the perfect mix of relaxation and activity, plus home to the best white sand beaches I’ve ever experienced.

We stayed in Red Hook, on the east side of the island, but the main town (and cruise port) in St. Thomas is Charlotte Amalie. While it’s very pretty (see the photo above – a clear day with no ships in port!), it gets crowded with tourists and shoppers when the ships are in. Charlotte Amalie is home to tons of duty-free shops, jewelry stores, designer bag sellers, etc… not really my scene. But hey! If you love to shop you might dig it.

But you know what else Charlotte Amalie has? One of the most popular and beloved traditional Caribbean restaurants in St. Thomas: Glady’s Cafe.

in Food Travel / Restaurants 0 comments

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Pork and Pesto Picnic Bites

Ultimate Summertime Cole Slaw

Sparkling Summer Sangria

More Endless Roadtrip USVI: 1. Caribbean Comfort at Gladys Cafe 2. Bones Rum Shop

More Endless Roadtrip USVI: 1. Caribbean Comfort at Gladys Cafe

More Endless Roadtrip USVI:
1. Caribbean Comfort at Gladys Cafe
2. Bones Rum Shop

More Endless Roadtrip USVI:
1. Caribbean Comfort at Gladys Cafe