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by BS

Feed Us Back: Comments of the Week

– Everybody loves scrapple! (seriously), and everyone’s got their own way of eating it. Don:

Have to make some soon. I cut them between 1/4? and 1/2?, lightly flour to help in creating a nice crust. Medium heat in a lightly oiled skillet until both sides are nicely browned. Delicious! Matches up nicely with eggs of any style but try this next time: scrapple, eggs and grits – yes, GRITS (cheesy grits are best) – a great combination!

Kenneth Moore:

I do love me some scrapple… But I’m mostly vegetarian now. It would take something quite drastic for me to bend so far as to eat scrapple, but it used to be one of my secret delights! My preferred use is about half as thick as yours, TVFF. I like crunch in my meat. Then, stack it on an english muffin with an egg, maybe some cheese (and a bit of syrup does make it yummy, yes!). Anything is better encased in carbs!

Pat:

If you travel in and around the Lancaster, PA area (PA Dutch/German epicenter), the scrapple is served with syrup. You cut those pancakes/waffles up, mix in the cut up scrapple (or bacon or sausage), then pour syrup over the whole mess. That’ll stick to yer ribs!

– modoo works the fifth borough into our Ultimate NYC Hot Dog Crawl:

Skippy’s on Hylan Blvd on Staten Island. It’s a truck, so its not always there. The only better is Nathans.

– And the Washington side of ES has plenty to say about changes in DC’s gayborhood – join the convo!

(Photo: John Donges)

in Red Meat 3 comments

by BS

ES Local: Pre-Thanksgiving Treats in NYC

In that great annual Thanksgiving debate, I fall decidedly in the camp of sides (and dessert) being way more exciting than turkey, which means around this time of year I start getting way too excited for sweet potatoes, stuffing and pumpkin pie. So let’s be honest, I’m just not gonna be able to hold out two weeks until the big day itself.

Fortunately, some of New York’s crazier chefs are incorporating Thanksgiving flavors into their pre-turkey day dessert offerings. Here are a few of the more exciting/insane options:

by BS

The Ultimate NYC Hot Dog Crawl

Wherever you live, you’re surely familiar with the lure of The New York Hot Dog. And if you consume any kind of food media, you’re also probably aware that there’s no longer any reason to limit your NYC hot dog intake to those slimy wieners sold from carts in Central Park – or even to the recession special at Gray’s Papaya. Hot dogs are this year’s comfort food gone gourmet, and every hot NYC chef seems to be adding the once humble frankfurter to their repertoire, usually topping it with something new and more outrageous than the last guy.

Over at Oyster Local this week, I took a look at four of the best new high-end hot-dog shops in Greenwich Village, which inspired me to dig a little deeper and come up with this list of NYC’s best new gourmet hot dogs (along with a few classic stops) for the ultimate, 20-link New York Hot Dog Crawl. No, I have not actually completed this crawl, at least not all in one day, but if anyone’s up for the challenge I think I have a few free Sundays coming up. Let’s all just make sure our health insurance is up-to-date first.

1. Nathan’s Famous

Duh! The basic classic, just for starters. 1310 Surf Avenue, Brooklyn (Photo: Meg Zimbeck)

2. Willie’s Dawgs

Park Slope gets a little crazy with Niman Ranch beef dogs (or tofu ones — this is Park Slope, after all) stuffed in challah or rye rolls and finished with some inspired toppings like baked beans and salsa. 351 Fifth Ave., Brooklyn (Photo: Stumptown Panda)

3. Bark Hot Dogs

Gourmet hot dogs get the brownstone Brooklyn treatment, sourced from locally-raised meats, doused in a classed-up cheese sauce, served in an eco-friendly environ, and paired with Six Point ales. 474 Bergen St., Brooklyn (Photo: Cherrypatter)

4. Smoke Joint

Fort Greene’s favorite BBQ spot brings the hot meat-on-meat action by topping a Black Angus dog with pulled pork, beef or chicken (and some homemade coleslaw). I know you can’t see much of the dog, but trust me, it’s worth the mouth-work to get there. 87 S. Eliott Place, Brooklyn (Photo: Senorjerome)

5. Asia Dog

New York’s hippest hot doggery is, of course, not one restaurant but a rotating curated party for those in the know. These bahn mi dogs are found at Williamsburg’s Trophy Bar, but only on Tuesday nights. They also pop up elsewhere in Brooklyn and LES throughout the week. 351 Broadway, Brooklyn, On Tuesdays. (Photo: LadyDucayne)

6. San Antonio Bakery 2

Slip into Queens for the Chilean take on hot dogs: slathered with avocado puree, mayo, onions, tomato, and just a little bit of hot salsa, on a crusty homemade bun. 3620 Astoria Blvd., Queens (Photo: Pabo76)

7. Frankie’s Franks

Like the marathon, we’ll dip into the Bronx for a moment just to say we did. At FF’s, you get two fried hot dogs stuffed in one roll, topped with onions, peppers, AND potatoes. They actually call this a Jersey-style dog; I’m not sure if that’s authentic Jerz, but that’s a whole ‘nother post!) 2330 Arthur Ave., The Bronx (Photo: Kay::Snyder)

8. Fatty Crab

Hotshot chef Zak Pelaccio makes the case for the $13 hot dog: homemade pork sausage topped with pickled chilies, cucumber, radish and cilantro, then laced with a spicy Asian aioli and stuffed in a toasted potato bun. 2170 Broadway (Photo: Scaredy_kat)

9. Brooklyn Diner

When size matters, it’s hard to beat the foot-plus-long frank served at this midtown Manhattan (confusingly, not Brooklyn) institution. The 15-inch dawg comes on a comically small but beautifully buttery bun, along with onion rings, relish, mustard and kraut. 212 W. 57th St. (Photo: Jeffery and Rachel Vanneste)

Continue Reading: the next ten hot dogs

in Bacon / Cheese / Eggs / Featured / Fowl / Pig / Red Meat / Restaurants 14 comments

by BS

ES Local: Six LES Food Stops, Old and New

View LES Food Stops, Old and New in a larger map

You know we usually like to think of ES as a huge, important international operation. Actually, scrap the ‘usually’ — I’ll stand by that. But sometimes we also like to obey the whole “all Internets is local” mantra. So over the next few months we’re going to be teaming up with the folks at new travel website Oyster to bring you some local NYC food content. Twice a week, we’ll be posting mini-guidebook style posts about our favorite New York food stops. You can read the posts both here on ES, and over at the new Oyster Locals blog.

First up, we’re looking at the Lower East Side, a neighborhood that serves as NYC’s ultimate dichotomy. With shiny new hotels and condos rising next door to rundown tenement buildings, it’s the new Manhattan plopped down right on top of the old Manhattan. Actually, it’s a really effing weird place right now. But for food lovers, that means a wondrously schizophrenic smorgasbord. Here are three of the best classic LES food stops still standing, along with three newcomers that are worth the hype.

Old LES: Katz’s Famous Delicatessen. Sure, New York’s oldest deli has become a bit of a tourist trap ever since Meg Ryan had “what she’s having” here, but the circa-1888 salami shop deserves credit for keeping their sandwich prices relatively reasonable, unlike some other brand-name NY delis. 205 East Houston St.

New LES: WD-50. The immigrant Russian family who founded Katz’s would likely roll over in their graves if they saw the passion fruit-filled foie gras and scrambled egg ravioli that mad scientist chef Wylie DuFresne whips up here. But if you’ve got $100 to throw around, NYC’s most playful 10-course tasting menu is a worthy diversion. 50 Clinton St.

in Desserts / Restaurants 6 comments

by tvff

There Will Be Blood (Sausage)

How do you get your wife to buy the main ingredient for dinner without letting her know exactly what it is?

Keep referring to it as “boudin noir.”

OK…I wasn’t exactly conducting a top-secret operation when I asked her to stop by Salumeria Biellese in Manhattan to pick up some blood sausages. She’s usually pretty agreeable about trying new and exotic items, particularly when they get the TVFF seal of approval.

Still, I wasn’t sure how well this would go over, so I stuck with the more vague French name and hoped that she wouldn’t bother looking over any ingredient list on the package. The jig was up when she and a co-worker took a photo of the sausages on her phone to show me and they noticed that the second or third item was “pig’s blood,” but I think that actually earned her some cred in the office for being adventurous.

And so it was time to bring these sanguine sausages home for an authentic French bistro-style preparation, courtesy of a recipe from Anthony Bourdain’s cookbook…

in Pig 3 comments

by BS

ES To-Eat List

Eaters mingle with star chefs at New York Taste.

We’re constantly getting news of various delicious events crossing our virtual desks here at ES, and we figured we should probably start sharing them with you. So here’s our first list of upcoming edible events we’re already drooling over:

Wed. Oct 21 (TONIGHT!): David Sax speaks about his book Save the Deli at the Sixth and I Historic Synagogue, Washington, DC. (look out for local celebrities in attendance.)

Thurs. Oct 29 – Sun. Nov. 1: Boo and Brew Gourmet Getaway. The best of Vermont all in one weekend: gourmet meals at Good Commons coupled with Long Trail beer brewing and a local cheese tour, plus Halloween scariness like a corn maze and hay rides. Transportation from NYC included. Plymouth, Vermont.

Mon. Nov 2: New York Taste: New York magazine serves up food from 40 of NYC’s top chefs — Dan Barber, Govind Armstrong, Morimoto, etc…basically everyone you’ve ever seen on Top Chef. Skylight, Manhattan. (we’ll be there – say hi!)

Wed. Nov 4: James Beard meets Jersey. At this benefit dinner, past James Beard Award winners cook up some fanciness in West Orange, New Jersey.

Sat Nov. 7: The 5,000 Egg Giant Omelette Celebration. Yes, that’s 5,000 eggs. Don’t really need to hype this one up anymore, do I? Abeville, Louisiana.

Sat Nov. 14: Winter coming doesn’t mean beer festival season is over. The Great International Beer Festival kicks off in Providence, Rhode Island.

What else should we be eating and drinking over the next month?? Let us know.

in Celebs / Eggs 2 comments

by BS

Burns My Bacon: Jewish Deli Bread

Britannia got our mini-rant series going last month with his admonishment of the salt and pepper shaker filler-uppers, and now I’d like to tell you yell about something else that burns my bacon, er…pastrami.

I think we can all agree that an old-school, New York-style Jewish deli is just about the best place in the world to get a serious sandwich. Pastrami from Katz, corned beef from 2nd Avenue Deli — wherever it is, you know the deal: some form of exquisitely cured beef product piled far beyond reason and then shoved between two slices of bread; mustard, pickles and slaw on the side.

But there’s one thing that has always bugged me about Jewish delis, and I’ve been afraid to ever say it, fearing an outpouring of anger from the traditionalist eaters. But I just can’t stay silent any longer.

in Rants & Raves / Sandwich 9 comments