A Full Belly

Essentials of a Japanese pantry

Bookmark this: Maki's excellent essentials of a Japanese pantry organized by must haves, good to haves, and not essential at all.

nyc ice cream sandwiches face off

Taste Taste: Ice-Cream Sandwiches. I would get all excited about New York Magazine's round-up of the city's eight best ice cream sandwiches except that a) the one from Otto doesn't count because it involves brioche instead of a cookie (and yes, I know this is traditional in Italy), and b) I'm already in love with the one the deli on the next block sells for 35 cents. I'm sure I'll enjoy the listed treats once I get around to trying them but I doubt they'll ever be the remedy I think of when I feel an ice cream sandwich-shaped hole in my heart! Sometimes cheap and simple is all you really want.

dash dogs does sliders

Dash Dogs on Rivington (between Norfolk and Essex) is one of my favorite cheap eats in the city, $5 for two hotdogs with your choice of toppings and a drink, plus the guys who run it are really nice. They recently added sliders to their menu, so I asked the proprietors why and they said it was basically because, after a year in business, none of them could eat hotdogs anymore. Ha!

$6 buys you three little hamburgers with any toppings (the same fancy things that go on their hotdogs; try the cilantro salsa and garlic aoili or the avocado salsa, cheese and bacon) and a drink. Pretty good deal, and the sliders are fairly tasty, although my current favorites are still the ones at Burke in the Box. Read about those and more in A Hamburger Today's tiny hamburgers archives.

new york's oldest bartender turns 90 today

Algonquin Hotel bartender Hoy Wong turns 90 today. He's been bartending for 58 years, never misses a day of work—shows up early when the weather's bad—and has made drinks for celebrities like Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland ("Very sad. She always had a cocktail glass in her hand.") and Dean Martin. Many happy returns of the day, Mr Wong!

Hello, Milk!

Why does the milk seem to get better (ie, sweeter), when you steam it? Is it a change in the chemistry? The incorporation of air? Both? What is wrong (or right) with me that I care this much about coffee and creating the perfect milk to marry with it?

Hello, Milk! is a chemistry lesson and how-to guide in choosing the right milk for steaming and frothing in your espresso drinks.

august is for chinese street food

"August is shaping up to be an exciting month for fans of Chinese street food," says New York Magazine and gosh, I think they might be right, with two newly-opened purveyors of cheap tasty treats opening in recent weeks: Province in Tribeca (Church & Walker) serves meat-filled mantous for $3.50-$3.75, and Roll and Dough in the West Village (West 3rd near 6th Ave) is the Manhattan outpost of Elizabeth Ting, the lady known to Chowhounders as the Flushing Bing lady for her delicious bings, flat packages of sesame-seed encrusted dough with all sorts of delicious things inside. Lots of photos here, taken by The Girl Who Ate Everything.

potsticker girls

Just about the last thing I need in my apartment is another tiny tchotke, but it's taking all my willpower to resist buying one of these lovely handmade one-of-a-kind wool potsticker girls: "Speically designed and carefully handsewn by Momo, each of these Potsticker Girls is one of a kind with her own characters and expression!! They even have different color blushes!" I want the one in this photo!

Each girl is $9 + $5 shipping from Hong Kong, but if you're getting more than one just email the seller to get a special rate. Buy me one, while you're at it. [via del.icio.us/yi]

What's it?

One of the San Francisco treats I've had the pleasure of discovering is IT's IT. IT's IT is a ice cream sandwich made up of a scoop of vanilla ice cream between 2 oatmeal cookies and dipped in chocolate. Google chef Nate Keller worked with IT'S IT to create a natural, locally-sourced, trans-fat free version of the treat, only available at the Google campus . Very cool. [via Sippey]

Bacon and butterfat

Bacon ice cream -- it exists! "Bacon and butterfat, what could be better? The stuff should come with CPR instructions." This story is from last summer, but worth linking to again because well, bacon and ice cream!