Like all things virtual, ES gets its share of spam. But sometimes there’s a gem in the land of sex/prescription drug nonsense. This one came to us just in time, as the world openly disputes which country (cuisine) reigns supreme. Freaking love the Olympics!
We all know there is no such thing as a free lunch. But back in the day, you used to get something for nothing, at least a slice of bread and butter, when dropping dollars to dine out. Now, not so much.
As I’ve complained before, Mexican joints are calling chips and salsa pico de gallo and charging for them; some fancy pants restaurants don’t even include tap water as an option; and the traditional free bread basket is harder to find than ever. (I don’t care if it is a garlic-rosemary brioche twist – if it’s bread, I don’t want to pay for it.)
Since these pre-meal freebies are becoming fewer and further between, I put together this list of New York’s best restaurants, as ranked by the free food they offer.
Holla back and let me know what I missed. You too, DC folks and others. Wherever I travel, I gotta know where the free is.
Skip the appetizer list at this chic West Village eatery ($8.50 for olives?), because you won’t even want a first course once you get a whiff of the fragrant, overflowing bread basket. The rotating assortment of freshly baked options ranges from the basic (rye, sourdough, challah) to specialty breads stuffed with bites of walnut, olive, and yes, even bacon. The baskets’ contents change from table to table, but if you’ve got a favorite, the servers are usually happy to hook you up.
The bread basket is just the beginning at this over-the-top Brooklyn diner, where each meal begins with an entire table full of snacks. There are two A-1 bread offerings: caraway-studded onion rolls and soft and buttery cornbread, and each table also gets a sampling of crunchy dill pickles and a taste of the restaurant’s extra-vinegary coleslaw. Topping off this quirky smorgasbord is a gratis bowl of bright purple beets. The only problem is saving enough room for an overstuffed sandwich and a heaping slice of the legendary cheesecake.
Read More›
Gansie recently got her hands on a copy of Padma Lakshmi’s cookbook Tangy, Tart, Hot and Sweet, which of course I promptly stole. As has been mentioned countless times on ES, while this pretty face may not be a trained chef, girl really can cook. The book is a healthy 250 pages of recipes ranging from simplistic snacks (grilled cheese toastie with portobello and bacon) to complex crap I can’t even imagine making, like Moroccan b’stella. Of course, there are also ample photos of Padma salaciously chowing down on a fried chicken drumstick and the like.
While I’m not gonna do a full cookbook-through on this one for ya’ll, I am trying a few of the most enticing recipes, from appetizer through dessert course, so here’s my first attempt.
Read More›
From the top clockwise, TexMex black bean salad, Indian kidney bean salad, Italian cannelini bean salad.
So I’m a bit behind on this post, as I promised it back during MemDay weekend.
Anyway, this is a tale of vegetarianism, lactose intolerance and side dishes that spreads across three continents. For the first BBQ (I’m using the term as a party featuring grilled food, as meant in Jersey) of the season, I decided to make something that Maidelitala (veggie/lactard) could actually eat since she was the one who invited me to the birthday party.
The first thing I could think of to cook was a bean dish. I knew she loved beans and although I’m new to liking the genre, I thought this would be a great way to experiment. I spied this cannelini bean recipe over at Cookthink. As it’s well documented that I can’t follow instructions, I messed up a bit on the adding water part (put in way to much) and then I forgot the vinegar and added it after I took it off the pan. To make it my own, I mixed in asparagus and diced red onion and served it at room temperature. My bean salad was surely a hit, especially smashed on a baguette.
But clearly, this is not the end of the story. As you can see pictured above, there were two other competing bean salads. And I shit you not, these three bean salads were the only non-grilled side dishes. It was super embarrassing. Luckily, all of the bean salads were different and delicious. Mine had a more Italian theme. The host’s mom made a TexMex black bean salad and Maidelitala created a stunningly tasty Indian bean salad. Her recipe post jump.
Read More›
I love every culture’s version of fried dough filled with meat or veggies: samosas, pork buns, dumplings, Jamaican meat patties, flautas, and especially empanadas. It’s really cooking at it’s finest if you ask me. For some reason, these are among the types of foods that seem impossible to make at home, but when you think about it, they’re just bread and meat whipped up with some kind of cooking fat (generally used in excessive amounts), and if you want to get cheat-y about it, you can buy pretty much any of the outsides, like samosa shells or wonton wrappers, at grocery stores now.
When I lived in DC, I realized you could buy even empanada dough at the Mt. Pleasant Hispanic markets. Pretty cool. You just whip these little sheets out, fill em with whatever you feel like and fry em up. Totally cheating, but I’m not quite ready to start making empanada dough from scratch.
Anyway, I recently found myself craving empanadas, but far from Mt. Pleasant groceries or any similar Brooklyn outposts known to have empanada wrappers, so I decided to wing it and see if I couldn’t just make my own quickie version of meat-stuffed bread.
Read More› 
All I ever want to do on summer weekends is crash BBQs. And, yes, I’m using the term BBQ in the outdoor, light up the grill, party kinda way. I was able to crash one on the Saturday of Memorial Day. Our lovely vegetarian/lactard friend Maidelitala invited me, and as my guide, I decided I would make something that she could actually eat. That dish will be for another post, as will the dish I made for the other Saturday party that I got to too late to bring my food.
This post will star my Monday BBQ contribution. For Vi and Jerry Sizzle’s party, 80P made his signature chipotle dip and I also brought a whole pineapple to grill for dessert.
The main attraction was my above treat, grilled jalepeno poppers. Now, I don’t know what necessarily constitutes a “popper.” Does it have to be breaded? Does it have to be deep fried? Does it have to be rolling underneath a heat lamp at 711?
Read More›
I don’t know if you’ve noticed lately, but I’ve become lazy and will just directly cut and paste a press release into a post. I mean, if they’ve already perfected the wording, who I am to extract data and rearrange a perfectly good paragraph.
When one of my favorite PR people, Bailey, sent me this note:
Hey, just want to make sure that you saw this, since I know you blog about Top Chef.
with a presser about Top Chef, I knew I had a great afternoon post lined up.
So join us tonight, as we LIVE BLOG TOP CHEF, starting at 9:50pm EST, and watch DC’s Jose Andres (of Jaleo, Cafe Atlantico, Oyamel, Zaytinya and minibar by jose andres) as he helps to decide the fate of our chef-testants. I hate Lisa.
Presser post jump.
Read More›