A Full Belly

sietsema on shanghai cafe

NYC Nip and Squirt. A Full Belly patron saint Robert Sietsema reviews Mott Street's two-year-old Shanghai Café: "The most expensive ($6.95 for 8) features pork and a larger wad of crab than has ever been found in a juicy bun before. Sans crab, the dumplings are two dollars less, and I don't know which to recommend, since each is equally good in its own way. A third type cloaks gravy and pork in a doughier dumpling, fried crisp on the bottom like a pot sticker. The squirting grease will still kill you." Sounds like my kind of place! When I'm in Chinatown I almost always eat at New Green Bo, but I'll give Shanghai Café a shot next week.

meat from a vat?

Brave New Hamburger. The Village Voice's Geeta Dayal on cultured-meat production: "The basic idea is this: All meat is essentially muscle tissue marbled with fat. If you grew enough of these cells, you could theoretically make actual meat—without resorting to soy or slaughterhouses. Ideally, you could make thousands, if not millions, of nuggets from a single chicken using this method."

raw foodie flasher?

NYC Is the co-owner of raw food eateries Quintessence the subway flasher caught by cameraphone? Is it him? Is this a case of mistaken identity? All I know is, a) even my hard core vegan friends (hi David) laugh at raw foodies and b) this story makes me want to head on down to Crif*Dogs for a hot dog wrapped in bacon and then deep-fried (then topped with avocado and sour cream).

meaty music

Ask MeFi: Know any songs about meat? Songs mentioned in the thread (currently at 81 comments) include James Taylor's "Chili Dog", Beck's "Satan Gave Me a Taco", Fats Waller's "All That Meat and No Potatoes", and Tom Waits's "Eggs and Sausage". Can you say iTunes store playlist, people?

hot diggity

NYC A roundup of hot dogs. Where's the hot dog blog? I know there must be one out there.

Finding the perfect watermelon

From CUESA's Weekly E-letter, helpful tips on what to look for in the perfect watermelon:

• A pale yellow ground-spot where the fruit has been touching the soil while ripening on the vine
• A very hollow sound when you slap it
• Dull-ish skin –  super-shiny skin means the fruit is immature

You call it a picnic, I call it a feast.

SF While I was sweating it out in NYC over the weekend, my fellow San Francisco food bloggers had what they call a "picnic." But being food bloggers, it was no ordinary picnic. Dr. Biggles, Jen, Sam, Fatemeh, Amy -- no way am I missing the next blogger picnic!

eskimo cook book

Eskimo Cook Book. Put together by the students of the Shishmaref Day School in 1952, recipes include Eskimo Ice Cream ("Grate reindeer tallow into small pieces. Add seal oil slowly while beating with hand.") and Oogruk Intestine Soup ("Push the inside meat off the intestine with a spoon. Then take the meat out of the intestine and wash again."). [via MetaFilter]

vegans on lj

The Vegan Inventive Chef Community on LiveJournal. Home of the weekly Vegan Inventive Chef Cook Off, lots and lots of recipes for those of you who are veganally-inclined. (Wow, that sounds kinda dirty.)

strawberry milk sausages

Strawberry Milk Sausages. "The texture and flavor of the sausages are reportedly close to those of regular fish-meat sausages, with the exception that the aftertaste of strawberries remains. "It's an unexpected combination, but a taste that children will like," a Nissui official said. "Strawberries go well with minced fish." I'm highly skeptical but hey, then again I think green mangos and fermented shrimp paste are an unbeatable combination, so. Anyone in the NYC area find these at a Japanese grocery, please let me know!

press vs electric juicer

Is it pulp fiction or juicy fact? "We don't know why, and science can't seem to explain it, but the juice out of a press just tastes better." I don't care if it's from a press or an electric juicer, so long as it's sweet and sans pulp—I hate pulp! Ick.

mmmm, bacon

The Bacon Show: "One bacon recipe per day, every day, forever." Yes, this is exactly my kind of my blog, and no, I'm not secretly writing it, so stop asking, people!

vanilla

The White Stuff: How vanilla became shorthand for bland. "But the vanilla that wearies us is rarely vanilla at all. Anywhere from 90 percent to 97 percent of vanilla-flavored products are made with vanillin, a substance found in small quantities in natural vanilla but made synthetically for processed commercial foods. Real vanilla contains hundreds of different components that contribute to its nuanced taste and aroma. It is as different from vanillin as sugar is from Equal; vanilla possesses subtlety and depth, while vanillin is loud, brassy, superficial. And yet most Americans have become accustomed to the latter" Also: did you know that Coca-Cola is made with real vanilla? It's the truth! [via kottke.org]

beef, french-style

Ask MeFi: Why do steaks in France taste better than those in the US? Lots of answers to do with what cows are fed, how steaks are cut, aged and cooked, and recommendations on where to find hanger steaks in NYC.

spam, like diamonds, is forever

Ask MeFi: "I found a can of spam in the trunk of my car which, I think, was purchased in 1996. I wondered: Is it still safe to eat?" Hormel says shelf life is indefinite, so I will take that to mean SPAM will be edible when the only creatures left walking the earth are cockroaches and Cher. (Warning: I may have made this joke on the Belly before.)

mmm, grilled cheese

Grilled Cheese Lifehack! Me, I just wrap mine in aluminum foil and put it in the George Foreman. [via kathryn yu]

diet cokes

Demystifying Diet Coke(s). "For those of you who have expressed confusion over the many forms of diet and sugar free cokes now available to you, I offer an explanation, because I was confused so I did the research." Leslie Harpold rocks.

Food Fans Have Their Say

Food Fans Have Their Say: The Baltimore Sun on food blogs, including the Belly.

buttermilk pie

Buttermilk Pie recipe. I like buttermilk and I like pie, so why is it I didn't even know there was such a thing as buttermilk pie till now? Haven't seen any around NYC so perhaps I will have to bake one myself.

sweet stuff

NYC Manhattan User's Guide: Sweet Stuff. Charlie Suissman lists his favorite treats from around the city; he will never lead you astray, so pay attention.

chinatown ice cream dragon debacle

NYC Chinatown Ice Cream Dragon: There Can Be Only One. David Yee summarizes the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory vs Nolita Ice Cream Factory shebang.

I checked out the Nolita joint two weeks ago and they do seem to serve the same ice cream as Chinatown—the black sesame and mango I tasted seemed the same, as did the coconut I eventually and inevitably ended up getting—so I really don't understand what's going on.