A Full Belly

the state of bbq in the city

NYC 'cue Crazy. Gothamist post on how BBQ joints seem to be springing up in the five boroughs.

I visited RUB (Righteous Urban Barbecue), Paul Kirk's brand spankin' new outpost of Kansas City BBQ, last week. I'm still working on a long post about it, so stay tuned for that, but for now let me tell you that the food was outstanding and I cannot wait to go back for more! I know there've been a few reports of slow service and uneven food but keep in mind that most if not all new restaurants would suffer from the same were they to be deluged by our fair city's many foodies (not to mention BBQ fanatics) upon opening, no? And real fans of BBQ, a way of cooking that can frequently take an entire day or longer to get done, should be the first people to realize that good things take time...

corinne trang

Corinne Trang, "the Julia Child of Asian cuisine", has an exemplary site: it's highly informative and very elegant, so not only is it easy to find what you're looking for but you also get a sense of what she's about. I still think almost any web presence is better than none at all, no matter what field you're in, but if you're going to do it then you might as well do it right, like Trang has done.

NYC Mozarella 101

Memorial Day Weekend signals the beginning of summer for most of us, and the promise of a season full of tomatoes that taste like tomatoes! You'll need some fresh moz to go with your tomatoes, so why not learn how to make your own?

I highly recommend attending Artisanal's Mozarella 101 (I attended the class last year), Tuesday, June 7th, 6:30-8:30 p.m. To register or see a list of other classes and tastings, go to ArtisanalCheese.com, or give them a call at 212.871.3144. All classes are held at 500 West 37th Street 2nd Floor (entrance on 10th Avenue) and are $75 per person.

oh fairway, my fairway

NYC Mr. Ugli Fruit or: How I Stopped Being Nice and Learned to Hate Fairway. Food writer David Leite discusses the state of grocery shopping on the Upper West Side, and explains why so many of us who live up here love Fairway almost as much as we love to loathe it. Fairway's selection really is fantastic but as he points out, the horrible service—as well as all the little old ladies that unapologetically ram me with their carts, demolition derby-style in the aisles—is enough to send me all the way down to Whole Foods at Columbus Circle or to just order online from FreshDirect. For some things I still like to go to Zabar's, and for late night cravings Broadway Farm on 85th is now open 24/7.

N.B. Leite publishes the always excellent Leite's Culinaria.

Profile of Sonya Thomas

The SF Chronicle profiles our favorite competitive eater, Sonya Thomas, giving us a glimpse into what it takes to be a champion. On a typical day, she spends an hour and half on the treadmill, and only eats one meal a day--a Burger King Chicken Whopper, fries, and diet coke. She says, "But one thing, OK? One thing, I love Burger King french fries. I love it. I cannot skip my fries. I have to eat them every day. Really. I eat large french fries with that Chicken Whopper. Every day. And then a five-piece Chicken Tenders. And then I drink 42-ounce -- Burger King king-size cups -- Diet Cokes, about three, with my meal."

Sonya's favorite competitive food is  hard boiled eggs. Why? "Think about this -- 65 hard-boiled eggs in six minutes and 40 seconds. Do you think other people can do it? They don't want to try. No." Sonya goes on to reveal her technique:

"I think I love to eat eggs. OK, here's my technique: I bite a little bite, one or two bites, and drink water, drink a little bit. Zip, you know? And constantly do it. So easy for me. I think that's my specialty. Hard-boiled eggs is my specialty."

We're looking foward to this year's July 4th Nathan's Hot Dog eating contest when perhaps Sonya will achieve her goal of defeating hot dog eat champ Kobayashi. GO SONYA!

rooftop bars 2005

NYC Rooftop Bars 2005. All of New York Magazine's picks are glamorous and expensive when really all I want to do is hang out on a friend's roof or in their garden with some meat on the grill and some ice cold beers. Is there no rooftop equivalent of the Gowanus Yacht Club?

toast from the future

Toast from the future! Lance Arthur talks up his beloved Panasonic's NB-G100P, which uses infrared light to cook things 40% faster than the toaster you've got in your kitchen right now. [via A Whole Lotta Nothing]

tri-state hot dog roundup

NYC It's All in How the Dog Is Served. Ed Levine of the NYT lets the cat, err, dog out of the bag: "You know those hot dogs that you know and love, and can't wait to eat this time of year? The ones served at Katz's Delicatessen, Gray's Papaya, Papaya King, the legendary Dominick's truck in Queens and the best "dirty water dog" carts? They're all the same dog, manufactured by Marathon Enterprises, of East Rutherford, N.J., the parent company of Sabrett. They may vary in size, preparation and condiment selection (and Papaya King has Marathon add a secret spice to its mixture), but they're the same ol' dog. In fact, until a few years ago, Marathon made Nathan's hot dogs."

(Call me a philistine, I don't care, but my two favorite hot dogs in the city are the bacon-wrapped, fried, and topped with avocado Chihuahua at Crif*Dogs on St Mark's and the pastrami-laden offering at Artie's Deli on the Upper West Side. Yum!)

skot does blobonko

SF His humor and language are not for the easily offended, to be sure, but Skot's totally gonzo account of his recent meal at a particular Japanese restaurant in the Mission cracked me up. It's an incredible intimate jewel of a restaurant, responsible for the best meal I've ever had in the Bay Area (thank you to J.Z. for bringing me there!), but yeah, the service is slow. Food is well worth the wait though, as attested by the number of their long-time regulars.

best new fish shacks

NYC The Best New Fish Shacks in New York City. Top three of how many? (And does this make fish the new black?)

dumpling imposter!

NYC Dumpling Imposter. I'm not the biggest fan of Dumpling Man on St Mark's (their dough is so thick and heavy that you fill up on it instead of the meats, which are not spectacular to begin with) but whoa, Plump Dumpling's completely ripoff of the excellent DM branding is way lame.

taste of chinatown 2005

NYC Some of you may remember me posting about last month's Taste of Chinatown 2005, in which over 50 restaurants, bakeries, tea houses and specialty shops in Chinatown offered tasting plates for just $1 each. Despite the rain I went down to Chinatown and met up with some friends to see what the various places had to offer, my pocket full of singles and my belly uncharacteristically empty.

I missed last year's event so I have nothing to compare this year's to but I thought it was a real mixed bag. A dollar per serving is a wonderful price point and I hadn't been to any of the places participating before, so Taste of Chinatown could've introduced me to many new great tastes, but that's not quite what happened. Each restaurant should've taken the event as an opportunity to put their best foot forward, to offer small portions of some of their best dishes up even if they lost a little bit of money on the day itself as a temporary loss leader, to make new customers out of people who might never otherwise step through their doors. From what I saw though most places decided not to go this route and offered basic items you can get from every other restaurant in the neighborhood (not to mention the greasy takeout places all over the city), like noodles and fried rice; smacked of cheapness and was to me a bad marketing decision.

Now that I've got my little diatribe out of the way: I went around trying lots of different things, taking heed of which items the people who were clearly regulars were purchasing. I ended up doing most of my eating on Mott! Here are some of my notes, with links to photos:

Mandarin Court
61 Mott
212-608-3838

They had lots of dimsum out but by far my favorites were the fried dumplings, both pork and shrimp. I went back for a second helping, making sure that my friends tried their wares too, and I will return to try a full meal.

House of Vegetarian
68 Mott
212-226-6572

I'm a dedicated carnivore but I really enjoyed the two desserts from HoV, the surprisingly delicate fried banana and the very light, very refreshing mango pudding. (Their hot & sour soup is supposed to be very good, for those of you who are strict vegetarians and had given up on ever having some again!)

Mr Tang's
50 Mott
212-233-8898

Rude service plus both things I tried, fried dumpling & fried tofu, were nasty. Two thumbs way down.

Ping's Seafood
22 Mott
212-602-9988

Everything I sampled from Ping's Seafood was just fantastic. I usually avoid chicken at Chinese restaurants but the spicy chicken on my plate was great, extremely hot but you could still taste all the underlying flavors. The real revelation though was the chow fun, none of my companions had ever had chow fun that looked anything like their chow fun and we couldn't get enough of it, we still talk about it a month later! I'm returning to Ping's later this week and will be sure to order it, and also to follow Gastronome-In-Training's recommendation to always sit upstairs, where the carts are more active.

Peking Duck House
28 Mott
212-227-1810

Talk about your temporary loss leader, Peking Duck House's tasting plate was actually Peking Duck! And they didn't exactly scrimp on the servings either. So as you can imagine the line was extremely long, at least 30 minutes or so. I was tempted to approach someone near the front of it and offer to pay for their serving if they would get one for me too but chickened out and ended up not having any, but you can bet I have plans to dine there sometime soon.

Hsin Wong
72 Bayard
212-925-6526

This place is right beside A Full Belly all-time favorite New Green Bo so I've walked by it many times and never even so much as glanced at the menu, but it was getting cold out and congee seemed like a good way to warm up so my friend Miranda and I decided to split a tub of what turned out to be lovely hot congee with century eggs and super salty pork. I'm happy to have an alternative for those days when I fiend for congee but getting to Congee Village on the LES feels like too much of a chore.

crying, while eating

Crying, While Eating. "What are you eating? Why are you crying?" How I love this.

bar etiquette 101

Bar Etiquette 101: Or How To Get Served A Good Drink Quickly Even When It's Busy. I've spent much of the past month liquoring up at various bars in the East Village and LES (hurrah for finishing grad school) and have found that all the DOs listed plus the inverse of the first DON'T really do make for speedy drink service. [via The Morning News]

midtown dining

NYC One of the questions I hate getting asked that pops up most frequently is "Where's a good place to eat in Midtown?" Citysearch has a Midtown Dining roundup, sure, but am I wrong to be somewhat dubious of a roundup that a) only lists places for special occasions or cheap eats and b) doesn't mention Grand Sichuan International Midtown in either category?

North Carolina Barbecue: East vs West

North Carolina Barbecue: East vs West. In North Carolina, there are two styles of barbecue. Western style is  pork shoulders glazed with a ketchup-based sauce. Eastern style is whole hog with a vinegar sauce. The debate over which style is superior flares up when after a state bill passed declaring the western-style capital of Lexington, NC the home of the state's official barbecue festival. I agree with Dennis Rogers when he writes, ""People who would put ketchup in the sauce they feed to innocent children are capable of most anything....Let the word go forth from this time and place that we, the Eastern North Carolina purveyors of pure barbecue, will not be roadkill for our western kin."

david gallagher's china photos

Seminal New York photoblogger David Gallagher went on vacation in China recently and lucky for us, he's posted a gallery of photos from his trip: Eating China. Everything he had looks and sounds delicious, but while I'm terribly jealous of it all I'm particularly intrigued by the fried pork soup dumplings—I'm obsessed with pork soup dumplings and try to have them once a week, but I had no idea they came FRIED. Anyone know of a place that serves them fried in NYC Chinatown? Please let me know!

how to get freshdirect interested

NYC Ask Gothamist talks about how to get FreshDirect to deliver to your neighborhood. "Get organized and ask agressively, with multiple signers."

5 things you should know about grilling

Everything You Thought You Knew About Grilling Is Wrong. (Unless you think that those of us who live in our lovely little Manhattan apartments sans decks, yards and roof access hate all of you who have any of these things, because that's absolutely true.)

sexiest food shops in Paris

The sexiest food shops in Paris. If it rains, go to the colonial style tea room at Mariage Frères on the Rue Bourg-Tibourg to pretend you're sodden in Saigon in the style of Marguerite Duras's L'Amant. The taste of Jardin des Poetes tea makes one long to do unspeakable things beneath a slowly revolving fan.

kimchi addiction

Curse of the Kimchi: Inside a crippling addiction to Korean pickled cabbage. I don't like cabbage and I don't like pickled things so kimchi is a double whammy of dislike to me, but pretty much everyone else I know adores the stuff. Meanwhile I don't understand why some people won't even so much as try sushi, so.

SF: Digital Dish Book Launch

This weekend while you're out and about at the farmer's market, don't miss the book launch of Digital Dish: The Freshest Recipes and Writing from Food Blogs Around the World, a compilation of food writing by food bloggers. Check it out this Saturday, May 21st at 11:30 a.m. at the Berkeley Farmer's Market at Center Ave and M. L. King Way in downtown Berkeley, two blocks from Berkeley BART station. Four of the authors who live in the Bay Area will talk about the book and do signings. The authors include:

Owen Linderholm at Tomatilla! - www.tomatilla.com, Stephanie Lucianovic at The Grub Report - www.grubreport.com, Ellen Ferlazzo at Chronicles of a Curious Cook - www.cheapcooking.com/blog and Guy Prince aka Dr. Biggles at Meathenge - www.meathenge.com.

Come stop by your local Farmer's Market, take a tour around the world of cooking from Singapore, Australia, France, Austria, England, Canada, the US and more. Find out about how to fry wine or create a traditional Singapore New Year's feast, throw a South African Braai or even what to do with Marmite! Get a copy of the book, buy some farm-fresh organic produce and give your cooking a jolt!

Sunday you can catch them at 4:00 p.m. at Lafayette Bookstore, 3579 Mt. Diablo Boulevard in downtown Lafayette.

goodbye, uglesich's

Chuck Taggart's farewell to Uglesich's. Two great stories and lots of lovely photos from his meal there the day before Uglesich's closed, perhaps forever. And courtesy of Chuck: the recipe for Shrimp Uggie.

fun chop

I grew up with chopsticks so I've never had this problem, but if you don't know how to use them and would like to learn (and you really should! food tastes better and you don't look like a shmuck!), you might want to check out Fun Chop, the chopstick helper.

chicago diners

The Last Luncheonette. A guide to Chicago diners and lunch counters.

SF Where to take summers guests

SF Patricia Unterman suggests 7 restaurants in the city to bring summer visitors.

Freezing guide

Kitchen reference: SF Chronicle's guide to what to freeze and how.

Barbecue season is here!

The inagural meeting of the NYS chapter of the New England BBQ Society (NEBS) is taking place this  Sunday, May 22, 2005 at noon at Paul Kirk's RUB restaurant located at 208 West 23rd Street between 7th and 8th Ave. They've have arranged for a $25 tasting menu (drinks are extra) and members and non-members of NEBS are both invited. RSVP by Thursday, May 19, 2005 to nycbbq@hotmail.com.

More about NEBS:

NEBS was born to offer New England grillers the opportunity to learn Southern style barbecue techniques, whether using wood, charcoal, or even gas. Since its inception, the New England Barbecue Society has accomplished the following:    
* Promulgated the use of natural charcoals and woods for fuels    
* Organized and supported certified BBQ judging classes    
* Organized and supported BBQ cooking classes    
* Organized "road trips" to many BBQ restaurants
* Developed consistent rules and regulations for cookoffs.    
* Sanctioned and Judged numerous cookoffs and BBQ events

Related: Barbecue joints in NYC

Google Chef no more

SF Chef Charlie Ayers is leaving the Google Cafeteria and plans to open a chain of healthy food restaurants in the valley.

World's largest cake

Las Vegas creates 130,000 lb cake, measuring 102 feet long, 52 feet wide and 20 inches high, and expected to be confirmed by Guinness Book of Records officials as the world's largest cakes. I can't help but wonder, did it taste like cake?

What every foodie should do

The top 50 things every foodie should do [via Kottke]

rion's tsukiji photos

Another wonderful set of photos from Rion Nakaya: Tsukiji Fish Market. I love the one of the octopi!

i still like sugar

Sugar Is Latest Supermarket Demon. "Carbs was a trend, but the concern about sugar is here to stay."

self-heating packaging

Taking The Heat Out of the Kitchen. Self-heating packaging is being introduced to the U.S. via Wolfgang Puck's new coffee line; press a button on the bottom of the can and the coffee's hot in six minutes. So, takes as long as the line at Starbucks, costs $2.25 for 10 ounces and might not even taste good? Not sure I'm sold.

A Hamburger Today

Editor and Publisher of Slice, Adam Kuban, fills a void in the food blogosphere with A Hamburger Today, a hamburger-centric food blog. Let the burger debates begin!

NYC How to lunch at the United Nations Delegates' Dining Room

NYC How to lunch at the United Nations Delegates' Dining Room (thanks, Amy!).

Organic Store Wars

Organic Store Wars: Join the organic rebellion, sponsored by the Organic Trade Association. I laughed, I cried, and I disagreed (the fiction in Organic Store Wars is that agricultural science i.e. genetic engineering is universally bad for food) but still! Do not miss Obi Wan Cannoli, Chewbroccoli, or Tofu D2. 

How hot is hot?

The world's hottest chili sauce, "16 Million Reserve," is made of pure capsaicin and is 30 times hotter than the spiciest pepper and 8,000 times more fiery than Tabasco.

How to Eat Five Meals and a Snack in 18 Hours in San Francisco

SF How to Eat Five Meals and a Snack in 18 Hours in San Francisco

gathering bamboo shoots

A Flickr Photo set: Gathering Takenoko (Bamboo Shoots) from our backyard for dinner.

all about rhubarb

The Rhubarb Compendium: Everything you ever wanted to know about rhubarb.

The Museum of Food Anomalies

The Museum of Food Anomalies. Food with faces, giant chips, and more.

James Beard Foundation Awards

The James Beard Foundation Awards for restaurants and chefs have been announced. Winners include Karen DeMasco (Craft, NYC), Mario Batali (Babbo, NYC), Lee Hefter (Spago, Beverly Hills), Andrew Carmellini ( Café Boulud, NYC), Thomas Keller (Per Se, NYC), and Danny Meyer (Union Square Hospitality Group, NYC).

Photo courtesy of Michael Harlan Turk. Thanks!

Silicon Valley corporate cafeterias

SF The Mercury News takes a tour of Silicon Valley corporate cafeterias and rates them. Not surprisingly, Google scores 4 stars: "If it weren't for the lines of people carrying brightly colored dishes on trays, it would be hard to believe Google Cafe is a cafeteria. The food is fresh, imaginative, multiethnic and bursting with vibrant, layered flavors. Selections range from pizzas with crisp, charred crusts to glistening, ruby red cubes of raw ahi tuna tossed in a spicy poke sauce mellowed with avocado."

Eat more ice cream, be happy.

Eat more ice cream, be happy. Scientists find that eating ice cream activates the same pleasure zones of the brain as winning money or listening to your favorite music. "This is the first time that we've been able to show that ice cream makes you happy. Just one spoonful lights up the happy zones of the brain in clinical trials." Pass the Ben & Jerry's!

NYC Dumpling World Tour

NYC A Year in Food shares his Manhattan Dumpling World Tour, visiting some of my favorite dumpling stops. Yum!