A Full Belly

afternoon snack, lower east side-style

Buy a pork banh mi sandwich on Mulberry and a taro slush bubble tea on Grand, then enjoy your delicious treats while watching a futbol match on Chrystie. I love New York.

kitchen secrets: bill buford with mario batali and anthony bourdain

New York City food nerds, alert! Mark June 21st off on your calendar and take out your credit card, you are about to buy a ticket to see former New Yorker fiction editor Bill Buford talk at the NYPL with two of our most favorite chefs ever, Mario Batali and Anthony Bourdain, in the latest installment of the Kitchen Secrets series.

I haven't gotten around to reading Buford's new memoir Heat yet but now I'm definitely going to have to before the 21st, because parts of it detail how he came to quit his job at the New Yorker and start apprenticing at Babbo under Batali himself. As for Bourdain, not only is he Amazon's featured guest reviewer for Heat (subtitle: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany), but his latest book The Nasty Bits just came out two weeks ago, so I guess I'll be picking that up too—just as soon as I finish my current read which is, coincidentally enough, his infamous Kitchen Confidential.

P.S. Heat's been getting reviewed left and right, but here are two I particularly enjoyed reading: Will Work For Food (Julia Reed, NYT) and Eating Out (Jason Epstein, New York Review of Books). If you read only one, then for your own good choose the latter as Epstein does a marvelous job with Heat in the first part of the article and an even more spectacular one with Julia Child's My Life In France in the second!

Wedding pizza

I love this! Quintessential New York: Wedding Pizza. We went for wedding burgers.

The Hungry Cabbie

NYC The Hungry Cabbie is a food blogger and a cabbie.

NYC Just Kidding: A Benefit for Just Food

NYC Just Kidding: A Comedy and Music Benefit for Just Food is this Wednesday, May 3th. 

Just Food is a non-profit organization in NYC that helps increase access to fresh, locally grown fruits and vegetables. They work with community gardeners, regional farmers, and people in the community through 4 programs: City Farms, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in NYC, Community Food Education, and Food Justice.

Tickets start at just $40, and can be purchased online at www.brownpapertickets.com. For more information, call Just Food at 212-645-9880, ext. 221.

A Taste of Chinatown

Manhattan's Chinatown is already pretty crowded on weekends, so imagine what it's like when 50 restaurants offer food samples for $1-2 a plate. The threat of rain didn't seem to deter anyone from venturing downtown today for a Taste of Chinatown.

I took my lead from Gothamist and headed straight for Mott St.; walking from Canal, it took me about ten minutes to reach Tearrific Café, my first stop. At this point, it still wasn't raining but a dance was taking place in the middle of the street. People were shoving each other impatiently, but if they had taken a deep breath and looked up, they would have seen a bright blue dragon head swaying in soothing circles. Patience is the spice of life.

I got a plate of fried appetizers from Tearrific for $2. I liked the savory, crispy edges of the fried vegetable dumplings and will go back soon for a plate of these. The spring rolls were pretty bland, so I skipped these and finished off the shrimp toast. It started to rain so I took my first taste into a corner and watched a woman paint the name "ALLISON" on a sheet of paper. Rain had gathered on the edges of her tent cover and tumbled suddenly onto the pavement. Some of it splashed onto her paper and smudged one of the letters.

I continued walking down Mott and picked up some more dumplings and chicken skewers (delicious!) along the way. Most places have an abundant supply of dumplings, noodles, and spring rolls, but if you're patient, you'll get a taste of more elaborate treats. At Pecking Duck House the line for the duck was at least a block long. It moved briskly, and the generous portion of duck they served for $2 more than compensated for getting completely soaked. I also enjoyed my plate of fried tofu and rice at Silkroad Mocha Cafe. The rice was remarkable: a mix of various grains of rice with flecks of diced peas, carrots and red peppers (fresh not frozen) and a splash of lemon.

The real special treats, like sauteed shrimp in pumpkin sauce (Sweet-n-Tart) and Peking duck (Pecking Duck House) run out fast, but at 4:30PM several places were still bringing out more food. My last stop was Buddha Bodai, a kosher restaurant at the end of Mott, where one of the vendors was calling out "Tsimchoni!" (Hebrew for vegetarian). At this point, I was so stuffed that I could go no further. I brought home a taste of General Tso's (vegetarian) chicken and green tea sticky rice balls to savor later. You do fill up quickly on a few tastes, so my advice is to go very easy on the dumplings, spring rolls and chicken skewers and wait in long lines—the food at the end is worth the wait.

BYOB in NYC

NYC Add this one to your bookmarks: Amuse-Bouche's BYOB map of NYC.

Cheese, glorious cheese

Aaron Foster is man who knows cheese, so I was inclined to take notice when he emailed me about the Cheese by Hand project. Aaron describes it as "a revolutionary project being undertaken by Sasha Davies (of Murray's and Artisanal fame) and her husband Michael Claypool.  They are traveling around the country over the course of four months, visiting dozens of cheesemakers, and interviewing them for their audio-blog.  Nothing like this has ever been done in the United States, and I can't think of a better way to get the word out about American artisan cheesemaking." The kick-off and benefit is next Tuesday, April 25th. Tickets are $75.

All mixed up

NYC You may have heard of Chinese-Indian (or Indo-Chinese if you prefer) cuisine thanks to Chinese Mirch, and the recent change of ownership at Cardamomm that has resulted in a new Chinese-Indian menu. But you might not have heard of Chinese-Jamaican, as in De Bamboo Express (love the name!).

2nd Annual Independent Food Festival and Awards: Most Heavenly Pork Bun

2nd Annual Independent Food Festival and Awards:
Most Heavenly Pork Bun: Momofuku berkshire pork bun

There have been a lot of images of heaven through the ages. Light, fluffy, cloud-filled scenes full of rubenesque women with harps. A stern-looking fellow checking off names at the gate. Maybe a hazy light at the end of a tunnel, offering a glimpse of some haloed figures ascending with arms outstreched.

But there's one thing that heaven's always been missing: Pigs. Not flying, sainted pigs, mind you. But fatty, delicious, ready-to-be-eaten pigs. We haven't consulted scripture lately (and if Nirvana is the absence of desire, we'll pass on the absence of a craving for pork, too...) but offhand, there's no recollection of decadent heirloom pork. And as long as gluttony's on the list of sins, we'll be tucked away in the East Village, enjoying our pillowy-soft bun, a couple well-placed slices of cucumber, and that delicious, heavenly Berkshire pork. It's a hell of a bun.

Momofuku Noodle Bar
163 First Avenue (between 10th and 11th)
New York NY 10003
212-475-7899