Momofuku Authors Turned Bloggers

David Chang and Peter Meehan are on the book tour for their new Momofuku cookbook and are blogging about it on GQ's Web site. Meehan has also lined up his next project - collaborating on a cookbook with the owners of the Frankies restaurants.

More Danny Meyer

Danny Meyer has brought his touch to the Gramercy Park Hotel. His new Italian restaurant, Maialino, is now open. Thrillist has the menu.

He will also be opening another branch of Shake Shack in Miami next year.

Cupcakes and Cusack

If you're a fan of Joan Cusack and cupcakes, track down the Cupcake Stop truck today. Cusack is helping to sell cookies for charity. It will be moving around Midtown throughout the day. A schedule is posted, but the latest is on the truck's Twitter.

Korean Fried Chicken Fever Continues

Edible Manhattan magazine went on a Korean Fried Chicken binge with John T. Edge, a food writer and author of a book on fried chicken, with happy results. 

And Kyochon, which has been under construction on the Northeast corner of 32nd Street and Fifth Avenue for some time, put up an eye-catching decorative wrapping over its plywood a couple of weekends ago indicating an anticipated arrival of January 2010.  But this past weekend it seems to have been taken down again. Does that signify progress or that the target date is now obsolete?

The Way the Cookie Crumbles at Shake Shack

I took advantage of the first Saturday in November to test out Shake Shack's biscotti custard. I started by asking for a taste and got a small spoonful topped with biscotti crumbs. The Shake Shack employee told me that the actual custard would be topped with biscotti pieces but that this would give me the idea. The sample wasn't bad, but I did hesitate because it definitely had the potential to be a flavor that tasted good in a small portion but would lose any appeal in a whole serving. I had seen a few cups come out earlier covered in what looked like delicious cookie croutons and the lingering memory of that pushed me into the "I must try it" column.

My order must have come at a time when the biscotti bin needed refilling. I mostly got the crushed crumbs with just a few chunkier pieces. The custard had a strong flavor — I think it was almond — but with an underlying syrupyness to it that got tiring as I made my way through the cup. I really liked the texture contrast of the crunchy biscotti (which were great - not too sweet, not too hard) against the smoothness of the custard and I found myself, mixing the bits in as much as possible so I could get some in every bite. I don't regret having tried this flavor, but I probably won't spend any more Saturdays on it.

During my visit I also discovered that the Pumpkin Pie Oh-My! is available everyday, all month, at the Madison Square Shake Shack. A source has told me that that is not the case at the Upper West Side location. I have no confirmation on the reliability of that information at this time.

Note to Restaurants: Things Not to Do

Here is the second part of the list of 100 things restaurant staff should never do to diners.

Crazy Combos

First there was the "you can't be serious" Shopsin's mac & cheese pancakes combination. And it turned out to be an incredibly great one. Now you can get a mac & cheese slice of pizza at Hell's Kitchen Pizza. It sounds promising, especially because one of my favorite pizzas is the baked ziti slice at Calabria's Pizza in my hometown of Livingston, NJ. Pasta and pizza, perfect together!

But here's a combination might be more likely to generate a gag reflex: kimchi doughnuts from Dunkin Donuts in Korea.

A Gourmet Farewell Gallery

Kevin Demaria, an editor at Gourmet Magazine, documented the magazine's shutdown in this set of images. A bit voyeuristic, a bit sad, but interesting to see.

Small Bites

- Former Times restaurant critic William Grimes has written a culinary history of New York.

- The Daily Beast talks to novelist Jonathan Safran Foer about his new non-fiction book — Eating Animals — on animal agriculture and meat production. It sounds like a good read for fans of books like Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma or Fast Food Nation. It has apparently turned Natalie Portman into a vegan. And The Huffington Post has several pieces responding to Foer's book.

- On a similar note, Nicolette Niman, of the Niman Ranch, known for producing higher-quality meat, writes an op-ed defending meat eaters against those who say eating meat contributes to global warming. She places the blame more with farming methods and industrialization.  The Atlantic Food Channel has a piece critiquing Niman's defense. Helene York agrees with some of Niman's points, but takes issue with others, noting that all animals raised for eating contribute to climate change and that the pricing of industrial meats — and the federal policy influencing it — is the more important problem.

- Over on Slate.com, we learn how big farms can be better, at least from a worker's point of view.

- Small grocery stores around the country are trying to bring healthier food choices to low-income neighborhoods.

Happy National Sandwich Day

Today is National Sandwich Day and Serious Eats has a roundup of reviews of sandwich places around the country.

An Afternoon in Murray's Cheese Caves

New York City is bursting with food adventures. I am an advocate of creating my own, whether it be a walking food tour along Roosevelt Avenue in Queens or just a visit to a new restaurant. But sometimes its about taking advantage of organized food experiences offered in the city. Last month I had a chance to tour the cheese caves at Murray's Cheese. I previously noted Murray's as one of the great specialty food shops in the city. During Open House New York weekend, architecturally significant institutions all around the city open with free admission and tours, and Murray's participates, offering an afternoon of tours of their cheese caves.

I snagged a spot on one of the small, popular tours by e-mailing them as soon as the guide for the weekend became available. Throughout the rest of the year, you can get a tour of the caves with a cheese tasting as one of the classes at Murray's, but it costs $75. So this felt like a great opportunity.

Before the tour, while waiting for everyone to arrive, we headed to a classroom on Murray's upper level where some cheesemakers were and had a taste of a mild, young goats milk cheese from Vermont along with some sparkling wine.

The tour typically allows about 10 people to join. For our time slot, there were actually no-shows and some walk-ins were able to get in. We were given hairnets and led into the back doors, through a hallway in what looked like a stock area, down some stairs and another hallway — a real behind-the-scenes feel. It felt like we were being let in on a secret!

Pumpkin Doughnuts

October is behind us, but pumpkin season isn't gone just yet. Bloggers Blondie & Brownie compare pumpkin doughnuts from Krispy Kreme, Doughnut Plant and Dunkin Donuts.

A Fresh Look at Farm Foods

NPR has a beautiful interactive graphic on farm foods around the country. It looks like they began compiling this earlier this summer as part of Morning Edition series. It covers a random assortment, but includes some less familiar items like fiddleheads, nopalitos and daikon. If you don't know what those are, you should check this out. Whether you're looking for a good little story (with audio), some quick facts and tips on how to buy these fruits or vegetables, or recipes, it's all here.

Shake Shack's November Calendar

It's the beginning of a new month. It's time to say goodbye to Pumpkin Spice Saturdays, but hello to:

Monday: Pumpkin Pie
Tuesday: Meyer Lemon
Wednesday: Cranberry Cinnamon
Thursday: Buttered Pecan
Friday: Apple Cider
Saturday: Biscotti
Sunday: Shack Shiraz Poached Pear

So, for another month, you can still get a pumpkin fix, but on Mondays instead!

UPDATE: Serious Eats also recently taste-tested something called Pumpkin Pie Oh-My! No indication of whether this is a limited-time-only menu item.

A Pumpkin Roundup

As we close out a month of pumpkin, here are a few more delicious-looking pumpkin recipes:

Pumpkin pancakes
(And if you're afraid to make your own, Cafe Orlin in the East Village might be a place to get some good ones.)

Roasted spicy pumpkin seeds

Pumpkin whoopie pies

Spiced pumpkin muffins

Ginger custard pumpkin pie

UPDATE: (one more for breakfast) Pumpkin spice oatmeal

South of the Empire State Building News

[I say south of the Empire State Building because this area along Fifth Avenue and just to the East and West really falls outside of the nearby neighborhood boundaries. ]

- One of my favorite go-to restaurants - Tabla Bread Bar - will cease to exist as I know it. Chef Floyd Cardoz has decided to merge his two levels of restaurant into just Tabla with a common menu that will include dishes from both parts. Let's hope some of the more affordable prices stay on the menu too.
UPDATE: Grub Street has a copy of the new combined version of the menu.

- Pamplona, a tapas restaurant on 28th Street between Park and Madison, has closed and may become a nightclub. I ate there once and while the food was decent, the service wasn't great, the prices were slightly high and the space was dark, and I never went back.

- A new coffeeshop called Birch Coffee opens in the Gershwin Hotel on 27th Street.

- The Breslin Restaurant, by April Bloomfield and Ken Friedman of Spotted Pig fame, is now open for breakfast and lunch in the Ace Hotel at 29th Street and Broadway. This area really needs some good neighborhood spots with decent food at good prices. Most of the new places I've tried have fallen short on the food front. I hope The Breslin doesn't turn out to be too trendy.

Szechuan Gourmet Review

There's been a lot of praise heaped on Szechuan Gourmet, a Chinese restaurant on 39th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues. Former restaurant critic Frank Bruni gave it two stars. Midtown Lunch raved about the Pork Belly with Chili Leeks lunch special. And I'd seen other blogs make note of this lunch dish. It sounded heavenly - fatty pork, a spicy kick and a great deal that comes with rice and soup. While I'd ordered other dishes from here before, I really wanted to test this particular lunch special. So one day not long ago I decided to go for it and ordered the pork belly as a takeout lunch.

What I got was a full container of very thinly sliced fatty pork with lots of leeks coated in chili, looking as though it would be spicy and filling, a side of rice and wonton soup. When I dug in, I found pork dull in flavor, perhaps too many leeks, and a disappointing lunch. The pork belly was hard to eat because the slices were long with large strips of fat. It's supposed to be fatty, but if it is fried up well, you can eat it and hardly notice. Or if the restaurant had used thicker cuts of it, the pork might have stood up better in this dish. Unfortunately this pork was soggy and hadn't absorbed any of the chili flavor; the meat tasted plain and not terribly fresh. The wonton soup thankfully was good and helped to fill me up.

This dish left me craving a better pork belly, so I consulted a friend who had once made an excellent version for me. A couple of weeks later I went to Hmart, the grocery store in Koreatown, got my own ingredients and cooked up a simpler, yet more palatable, dish of pork belly than I'd had at Szechuan Gourmet.

Small Bites

- The city's study of the effect of the calorie count postings is more positive.

- The Times asks: Can biotech food can cure world hunger?

- Some tips for restaurant waitstaff - a list of things they should never do. Most anyone who has ever eaten in a restaurant will agree.

- With the World Series going on, Sam Sifton, Times restaurant critic, and Pete Wells, Times dining editor, have a timely discussion about the cheesesteak. I had my first one last month from Tony Luke's at the Phillies ballpark.

More Meat on the Street

Yet another new option for street food: Frites N Meats, otherwise known as burgers and fries. It seems like an odd time of year for a new street vendor with the weather getting colder and fewer people apt to be on the streets. But they're on Twitter. (If you want to support the ones who do it the old-fashioned way - word of mouth, passersby etc - see last week's Times article on the more under-the-radar trucks.) Well, at least it has a catchy name!

Weird Fruits

People are always ready to get excited over hard-to-get or interesting new fruits. Like mangosteen, which Trader Joe's sells freeze-dried. Or the super fruit that people claim has every health benefit you can imagine, like acai. The one I'd most like to try someday is the miracle fruit. The LA Times takes a stab at what the next trendy fruit will be - the maqui berry.  Another LAT article introduces us to Buddha's Hand. If you've never seen this one, it has quite the startling appearance. A few years ago, I spotted this in the Manhattan Fruit Exchange in Chelsea Market, but have yet to taste it or see some innovative chef add it to a menu.

Taste Test: Pumpkin Bread

The Taste: Pumpkin Bread from Millport Dairy in Lititz, Pennsylvania.
The Test Verdict: 7.3 for flavor and taste (three tasters).
This pumpkin bread came from the Columbia greenmarket sold by an Amish man from Millport Dairy in Lititz, Pa. Pumpkin bread is my favorite of all pumpkin products and the best I've ever had was sold by the Amish at the Shaker Square farmer's market in Shaker Heights, Ohio. So, I was excited to try this bread. It had the basic key ingredients I'd hope to see in a homemade bread, listed on the wrapper: flour, sugar, pumpkin, water, oil, eggs, baking soda, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. It had a strong flavor, but didn't live up to the perfect balance of my ideal pumpkin bread. It was extremely dense and sticky; I'd prefer a drier, fluffier texture. One of the other tasters said it was "quite good, but a bit too sweet." Its saccharine nature made it so that I couldn't eat much more than a small slice of this bread at a time. When I'd buy my favorite pumpkin bread in Ohio, it took willpower not to finish off most of the loaf at one time!

Perilla Visual Review

Brunch at Perilla Restaurant, opened in 2007 by Harold Dieterle, the winner of the first season of Top Chef.

Complimentary corn cranberry muffins

A French Appreciation for Pumpkin

Peter Mayle writes in The Times about the pumpkin and Halloween's place in France. The best part:

"“Do you mean to tell me,” he said, “that pumpkins all over America are massacred, with all that good honest flesh tossed away, simply to provide a primitive decoration?” He took a deep swig of rosé and shook his head. “Do our American friends know what treasures they’re missing? Pumpkin fritters! Pumpkin and apple sauce — so delightful with sausages! Then, bien sûr, there is Toulouse-Lautrec’s sublime gratin of pumpkin."

And at the end, a recipe for pumpkin risotto.

Fewer Pumpkin Pies This Year?

The Los Angeles Times reports that there is a shortage of canned pumpkin and pumpkin pie filling because bad weather last year made for a smaller crop. That might explain why on a recent supermarket outing for canned pumpkin, the supermarket clerk said "Whatever we have left would be in Aisle 15." And it's not even close to Thanksgiving yet.

Taste Test: Pumpkin Cupcake #2

The Taste: Pumpkin Cupcake from Billy's Bakery.
The Test Verdict: 5 for flavor, 7 for texture (three tasters).
This cupcake was light and moist, but if I had tried this blind, I would not have been able to tell from the scent or taste that I was eating pumpkin, only that it was a sweet baked good. While the frosting, a smooth decadent buttercream, was good, there was much too large a heap of it on a cupcake this size.

A Preview of the Momofuku Cookbook

Next week, Momofuku king David Chang's cookbook will be released. The Wall Street Journal gives us a preview. The book is apparently written in his straightforward, vulgar language and the tone reflects Chang's ambitious attitude, covering things like boiling a pig's head. And if you need a refresher on the Momofuku empire, the WSJ's article includes a guide to the restaurants.

Taste Test: Pumpkin Bar

The Taste: Pumpkin Bar from Billy's Bakery in Chelsea.
The Taste Verdict: 7 for flavor and texture (two tasters).
I really liked this one. Solid, moist cake with a cream cheese frosting and nuts. A robust, spicy pumpkin flavor. I don't mind nuts in my desserts, but those who do might not love this dessert. This tasted more homemade to me than the other baked pumpkin desserts, but one unofficial taster disagreed, saying the icing tasted like confectioner's sugar. (But maybe there is a reason she's not an official taster!) I don't love icing in general so tend to shun it if it tastes just like sugar. This icing was rich and cheesey to me and while there was a bit of it leftover at the end, I felt more able to eat it a proportional amount of it with the cake.

Small Bites

- The Los Angeles Times has a look at different kinds of milk out there from goat's milk to hemp milk.

- The employees of the USDA sadly get food that is no better than that of any other bad cafeteria.

- The Chicago Tribune profiles Chicago chef Rick Bayless as he adds a new restaurant, Xoco, to his Mexican empire.

- Alinea's chef, Grant Achatz, writes about the experience of losing his sense of taste as he underwent treatment for tongue cancer. He says that his appreciation for aromas increased even more after that period. See my review of Alinea to get a sense of how he incorporates smell into his meals.

- There is a good debate going on about the benefits of at-home cooking. Ta-Nehisi Coates at The Atlantic makes the point that cooking makes us more aware of what we are putting into our bodies even if the food we cook isn't necessarily healthier than what we get from eating out. Matthew Yglesias argues that there's reason why people don't cook as much and that cooking won't improve public health.

Taste Test: Pumpkin Parfait

The Taste: Pumpkin Parfait from Three Tarts.
The Test Verdict:  3 for both flavor and texture (two tasters).
The pumpkin parfait was composed of pumpkin puree, apricot compote, whipped cream, molasses and dark chocolate cookie. These flavors were out of sync, each competing for the strongest play - the pumpkin against the apricot, the sweetness of fruit against the sweetness of the chocolate cookie. One taster thought that any two of the flavors might have worked together, but all of them together just made for a weak, distasteful dessert. "A parfait should present the option of tasting the multiple layers at once," one taster said. "In this case, I can't imagine what utensil would have allowed that." The mini parfait cup made for difficult eating because our spoons couldn't quite squeeze into the narrow bottom. And so for all these reasons, this treat wasn't so much a treat.

Taste Test: Pumpkin Cupcake #1

The Taste: Pumpkin Cupcake from Penelope Cafe.
The Test Verdict: 7 for flavor; 7.3 for texture (three tasters).
This cupcake had a strong, spicy aroma with notes of nutmeg and ginger, but those things didn't come through as aggressively in flavor. The cake was fluffy, buttery cake with white raisins that blended in enough that they weren't noticeable except to someone analyzing the cupcake's texture! There was too much of the sugary sweet icing. But overall a decent cupcake.

For Lovers of Pumpkin Beer

Serious Eats recently took its own survey of several pumpkin beers. It includes two that Food in a Nutshell tried out recently.

Good Review

Good Restaurant in the West Village has seemed somewhat unfortunately named because I do think it actually puts out, well, good food. When I mention this restaurant, it always seems confusing enough that I feel compelled to explain that the restaurant's name is actually "good". Good is a popular spot for brunch and the waits can get long. Luckily, on my second vist here, I only had a 15-minute wait after which we were seated at a nice table in a cozy nook.

Good offers a terrific deal: The breakfast special allows you to choose any egg dish, pancakes or french toast (practically anything on the menu) plus a homemade bread or side and a choice of a Chipotle Mary or Passionfruit Mimosa. We both chose to go with the special.

Taste Test: Pumpkin Custard

The Taste: Pumpkin Spice custard cone from Shake Shack.

The Test Verdict: 9.5 out of 10 (two testers) for both flavor and texture.
The custard had a very deep, pumpkin flavor and visible specks of spice. My tasting companion noted that the custard tasted just like pumpkin pie before being cooked. The texture was thick and creamy and, as I said after finishing my cone, I could have gone for another one a few hours later!

Small Bites

- A little woman who eats a lot.

- Corby Kummer argues on The Atlantic's Food Channel that New York City's calorie counts ARE working.

- The New York Times Magazine put out the food issue this past Sunday with essays by Jonathan Safran Foer and Michael Pollan.

- A hilarious slideshow of cakes gone wrong.

Taste Test: Pumpkin Ale

The Taste: Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale and Dogfish Head Punkin Ale at  Rattle N Hum.

The Test Verdict: The Smuttynose was a lighter, more gently-flavored beer while the Dogfish Head was dark-colored and seemed heavier. Both had faint tastes of pumpkin to them. I should note I am not a big fan of beer and know little about them, but I liked both ales. But, for me, the Dogfish Head was better because it had more flavor to it. Another tester appreciated the Smuttynose's subtlety and prefers pumpkin ale at Heartland Brewery. Heartland currently has  a limited-edition Smiling Pumpkin Ale.

The New Critic's First Review

Sam Sifton, the successor to Frank Bruni as food critic for The Times, gives DBGB two stars in his first review. Food in a Nutshell went there back in August.

Does Science Make Better Ice Cream?

If you're bored with standard ice cream,  a new ice cream shop on the Lower East Side - Lulu & Mooky's - uses liquid nitrogen to custom blend your ice cream. The owner says his favorite flavor is chocolate with cayenne and ginger.

Buenos Aires: Resto (Retro) Review

I was lax in writing up a full review of my dinner at Resto restaurant when I was in Buenos Aires a couple of months ago.  But I thought I'd do a bit of a look-back review because it was one of the top dinners I had in that city and if you are going to visit, I'd recommend this place and we made reservations in advance. The chef is another who trained with El Bulli's Ferran Adria. And the menu here is a great prix-fixe three-course: the meals are presented in four combinations, but you can mix and match among any of them.

Resto is a small restaurant hidden in the back of the lobby of an architectural society. It's a very spare bright room, decorated primarily in white, with a few artsy photographs hung along one wall. The service was friendly and we were offered complimentary glasses of a great Rose Champagne to start. We ordered glasses of pinot gris to follow.

It's Time to Celebrate Pumpkin

With fall weather really starting to kick in, it's time to bring fall to the food blog. So I am beginning a series of pumpkin-related posts. A friend suggested a taste test of various pumpkin-flavored products and the results will be coming soon. But I'll start with a set of interesting pumpkin recipes posted on Serious Eats.

Pumpkin Turkey Chili
Olive Oil Pumpkin Bread
Pumpkin Walnut Cranberry Quick Bread
Pumpkin and Leek Soup

If you decide to try either of these out, let me know and you can become part of the pumpkin taste test!

The Craze for Fried Chicken

For months now, the northeast corner of 32nd Street and Fifth Avenue has promised that Kyochon, a Korean fried chicken company, would be coming soon. There had been no signs of progress until two weekends ago when finally I noticed the door open and some men working inside. And more recently plywood went up. Maybe it won't be too long now....

It seems that it's coming at a time of fried chicken madness. The Times Dining section last week noted the many non-Southern style fried chickens available in the city.

And Bon Chon, which used to be on the opposite corner from Kyochon but became Mad for Chicken, is opening up a new branch in Midtown on 38th between 7th and 8th.

Risky Eating

This week, The Times ran an article about how beef, contaminated with E. coli, managed to ruin one woman's life. On a related note, the Well blog gave us a list of 10 common food poisoning risks. It's not just meat that can be risky to eat. I would never have guessed ice cream would make it on there!

The list:
1. Leafy greens
2. Eggs
3. Tuna
4. Oysters
5. Potatoes
6. Cheese
7. Ice cream
8. Tomatoes
9. Sprouts
10. Berries

Advice For the Day

Food writer Michael Pollan posted a request on the New York Times Well blog asking readers for their personal rules about eating. There's a great interactive graphic with a fun design giving us Pollan's 20 favorites. Of them, I liked this one:

"Avoid snack foods with the 'oh' sound in their names. Doritos, Fritos, Cheetos, Tostitos, Hostess Ho Hos, etc."

Web Sites to Check Out

Today I received two e-mails that directed my attention to two interesting sites I hadn't seen before.

My Tasting Table newsletter today pointed me to Wine Chap, a site that gives advice on what are the best wines at restaurants listed in its database and points out what the best deals are. It covers not just New York but also London and Hong Kong and a few other select locations around the world. As for New York, it includes some of the top and more well-known restaurants in the city.

I also received an e-mail from a friend with a link to a Korean cooking site called Maangchi that contains videos showing you how to make Korean recipes.

Small Bites

For more on Gourmet's closing:
- The Times chronicles the life of the magazine and gets reaction to its closing.
and
- Ruth Reichl will write a memoir about her time at Gourmet.
Part of why I find the magazine's closing so sad is that Gourmet covered a niche of the food world in a specific design and manner not done by any other magazine. I've seen some criticism that lately the magazine's quality had deteriorated, but with declining ad pages, it had fewer resources to keep up. Most other food magazines run what could perhaps be considered more utilitarian content - simple recipes and day-to-day cooking tips and there seems to be so much overlap in that area. It's true - Gourmet was more of a magazine for foodies, covering restaurant news, food and travel and entertaining for a more sophisticated, high-brow audience. But, at least it was original. One writer, over on Salon.com, argues it was also a magazine for the "young and scrappy".

- Slate conducts a yogurt taste test. I've only tried two of the yogurts tested here (Stonyfield Farm and Wallaby), but was surprised at the results.

- New York city calorie counts aren't changing the food choices people make. This surprises me because I've noticed that they do in fact influence me - for instance, in deciding between ice cream flavors at Baskin-Robbins, I'll likely just choose the one with fewer calories.
and
- Fast-food bans in poor neighborhoods (like the ones in Los Angeles) aren't working either.

Mid-Autumn Festival is Here

This past weekend was the beginning of the Mooncake Festival or the Mid-Autumn Festival, an important Chinese holiday. Chinese people usually celebrate by eating mooncakes and giving them to relatives. There are many different stories behind the festival, none of which I really remember hearing often and am familiar with only vaguely. Or maybe I just didn't listen. Serious Eats has a nice explanation of mooncakes and a review of a variety of them that you can get in Chinatown.

Mooncakes are a pastry with a slightly sweet, soft cookie exterior filled with a dense black or red bean paste and often with a dried egg yolk in the middle. We always had boxes of these in my house during the festival time when I was growing up, but mooncakes were never my favorite thing. And because they are so thick and rich, it's hard to eat a whole one at once. So it would take awhile to make that box disappear. And there are so many varieties, I never knew which we had gotten.

Serious Eats mentions one variety, "round and white cakes with a flaky exterior and red stamping on the surface" that is more prevalent in the Suzhou region. It was rare that we would get those, but those were always better - the black bean paste was tastier and the whole thing not quite as thick. If you're looking to try mooncakes, my recommendation would be to keep an eye out for that kind!

Gourmet Magazine to Close

I am highly disappointed in Conde Nast for closing Gourmet, my favorite of its magazines. No end date has been given. I know I won't become a Bon Apetit reader instead; it just doesn't have the quality of content. And Gourmet has built up a beautiful Web site. Maybe it will survive in that form somehow. But I am in mourning.

Chicago: Alinea Review

"Science is an integral part of cooking. What we (the so-called "molecular gastronomists") are doing is about far more than science; it's about crafting an experience, about creativity, and about change."

That's Grant Achatz, chef at Alinea restaurant in Chicago, speaking about molecular gastronomy, in an essay for The Atlantic Food Channel.

Alinea was named the 10th best restaurant in the world. Achatz was profiled last year in The New Yorker. And there's rarely a mention of molecular gastronomy without Alinea entering the conversation. So there has been no shortage of attention for this restaurant. 

I recently had the opportunity to dine here as a birthday treat.  Let me just get this out of the way: Yes, I do think this is the top restaurant meal I've had. It wasn't 100 percent successful on every count, but this was an experience like no other. For the spots where it fell short, there were other ways in which it made up for it.

Before and after this trip, people were baffled that I would travel just for dinner. Most were unfamiliar with and puzzled by molecular gastronomy. And it's not easy to explain, but Achatz encompasses it well in that quote. One person likened Alinea to a food spa. Not only is it difficult to explain what exactly this dinner entails, even more so to explain why.

This dinner was truly an experience - all of your senses are engaged in ways that give you a heightened awareness of them. Rather than a meal being a long empty highway were you can zone out, these meals are like busy crossroads where your undivided attention is needed. This meal challenges our conventional notion of food, of eating and of cooking. Essentially, at Alinea, food is broken down to its components and all the elements are rebuilt in a an order different from the one in which we expect them. In doing this, Alinea brings a greater focus to the process. At Alinea, you are doing much more than just nourishing yourself.

Before I go on, I must make an important note. Reading this entry might be like reading a TV show finale spoiler. For anyone who might one day decide to attend an Alinea dinner, I warn you that surprise is a large part of what made this experience fun and amazing. And for that reason, I was glad to have an early seating before any other tables. That way, every part of the meal was a mystery until the moment we were served. As we left, the room had filled and if people were paying attention to other tables (it would be hard not to), some of that discovery would be taken away too early. But it's possible the menu will change over time as Achatz invents new dishes.

Flatbush Farm Review

This weekend's brunch took me to Flatbush Farm, a restaurant focusing on local seasonal food, in Brooklyn. There was no wait on a Sunday afternoon for brunch and we even managed to score a table outside on the cute, spacious patio so we could enjoy the fall weather. The benefits of leaving the confines of crowded Manhattan. But traveling farther for brunch also means my expectations are higher for the place to merit a return visit.

As expected at most meals I have, we had more than enough food and especially because the portion sizes were large.

Dessert Truck Finds a Home

Eater brings the news that the Dessert Truck will be opening up a store on the Lower East Side. If you've been in withdrawal from DT's chocolate bread pudding, rejoice!

Small Bites

- Food writer John T. Edge goes down to West Virgina to tell us about the pepperoni roll and how it came to be part of the state's culinary history.

- Smart Choices, a new food-rating program to help people make better choices when grocery shopping, is being criticized for including processed foods and products such as sugary cereals.

- California law versus cultural tradition. Do fresh rice noodles need to be refrigerated?

- Danny Meyer's inspiration for Shake Shack comes from the Midwest.

- Cooking Asian food at home doesn't have to be intimidating.

- The Guardian gives us a list of the 50 best things to eat and where to go to get them.

Shake Shack's October Custards

A new month, a new custard calendar!

Monday: Creme Brulee
Tuesday: PB & J
Wednesday: Salted Caramel
Thursday: Ruby Red
Friday: Tiramisu
Saturday: Pumpkin Spice
Sunday: Cinnamon Apple

I think the PB & J has the most promise. But we'll have to see. Tiramisu used to be one of my favorite non-ice cream desserts as a kid, so I might have to give that one a try. And pumpkin is one of my favorite fall flavors - as long as it's not in pie.

And of course, don't forget about the Oktoberfest concretes - German Chocolate and Apple Streusel!

Joe's Shanghai Review

Soup dumplings are a magical thing. A thin skin of dough sealed at the top manages to hold a luscious ball of pork and a spoonful of heavenly soup. How do they get that liquid in there?

Sometimes after work some coworkers and I head down to Joe's Shanghai in Chinatown to gorge ourselves on soup dumplings. The trip is worth it - a lot of good food at a cheap price. An order of pork soup dumplings comes with eight and usually we make it through one order per person and often more than that. And we add a side - fried rice, General Tso's chicken or noodles. On this night, we had three orders of dumplings (for two people) and Shanghai fried flat noodles.

It takes a careful strategy to eat these dumplings. You don't want to lose any of the soup. And it could leak out at any moment - when gently lifting the dumpling out of the bamboo steamer with the tongs or placing it onto the soup spoon or in consuming it. To eat it, first, you bite off the doughiest part of the wrapper on top and then you slurp the salty broth out, probably burning your tongue in the process because these dumplings come out fresh and piping hot. Make sure any soup that slops out stays in the spoon. Then go on to bite into the meat and the dough. One by one they disappear with only a pause to eat some more noodles, which are also delicious.

Joe's Shanghai sticks to the old-fashioned Chinese restaurant way of making people share tables, so you never know who you might end up with. The place is patronized by a mix of tourist and locals. But then you get to see what other people are ordering.

These dumplings are addictive. They're comforting as the weather turns cooler. And in the warmer weather, sometimes you just need to sweat it out. It all hits the spot, filling my stomach and warming my insides. It's a good thing Joe's Shanghai is a bit of a walk to the subway because after eating here, you'll need to roll home.

Maoz Review

My work cafeteria so rarely offers inspiring enough options that I almost always default to the salad bar. But I often think, I could get something tastier and cheaper if I went outside. So on this day, I decided to try the newly opened Maoz Vegetarian just down the street for lunch. Maoz is an international chain serving primarily falafel pita sandwiches.

The place is tiny and there was a line out the door. I figured it would move quickly enough given that this is basically fast food. I was wrong about that. Because it was my first - and could possibly be my only - visit, I decided to go all out and try the Junior Meal deal: Junior Maoz sandwich with Belgian fries and a drink.

I ordered and paid first and got my drink. Then the guys behind the counter are supposed to have receipts telling them what to make, but they didn't have it together and had to ask me for my copy of the receipt to put together a wheat pita with lettuce and falafel. This was handed to me in a paper sheath at which point I moved along the salad bar choosing among a variety of pickled vegetables and sauces to add. At the end of the counter, another guy took my sandwich back to put into a waiting to-go bag. The glitch here was that the fries weren't ready and I had to wait for what seemed like a long few minutes in the narrow space.

Finally, back to the office I went with my lunch combo. The falafel was pretty tasty and it was nice to be able to customize my sandwich, though there wasn't much room to get a lot into that pita pocket. The fries were just okay and if I were to do it over, I would just stick to the sandwich. With the falafel being fried, the fries were just too much grease to handle at once. Nevertheless, the corner of 7th Avenue and 40th Street could have done a lot worse.

Oktoberfest at Shake Shack

Shake Shack is honoring the celebration of Oktoberfest with Shacktoberfest. There will be special sausages with different condiments added to the usual Shack menu as well as two new custard flavors. But hurry, these won't be on the menu for all of October, only from October 2 to October 11.

Weekend Roundup

The summer has not quite left us. On a dreary, rainy afternoon, the Van Leeuwen appeared before me to brighten my day with Earl Gray Tea ice cream. I knew there was a reason I had resisted any of the treats at Kee's Chocolate shop (no easy feat) when my friends and I made a post-brunch stop there.

Though I was already stuffed, I ordered a cone. I think I was happier for it. It always seems like it's more value for your money even if you don't want to eat that cone, but also, the act of licking an ice cream cone is just more fun than dipping into a cup. The Earl Gray ice cream was terrific - boldly made in such a way that I could distinctly taste both the black tea and the hints of citrus from the bergamot. The ice cream was a nice solid scoop that didn't drip down my hand before I could finish it. If Van Leeuwen were to manage to keep selling ice cream through the winter, I wouldn't let the cold stop me from coming back order more!

Postscripts:
The brunch that came before this was in Noho at Hundred Acres, opened by the same owners of two other popular brunch spots, Five Points and Cookshop. The place was large and though it seemed to have the potential for being sceney, it was low-key enough to allow for a group of friends to catch up on conversation without shouting while still maintaining a bustling atmosphere. There is a diverse menu (with a couple of added specials) - a good mix of classics with a twist and some less-often-seen dishes and huge portions.

Our group indulged in chilaquiles; poached eggs with jalapeño grits and sausage; blue fish hash; smoked salmon with potato pancakes and a fifth plate to share between all of us - semolina raisin french toast with honey yogurt and caramelized pineapple. Everything was delicious with only the french toast being slightly less than great. I'd definitely return here and especially over either of the sister restaurants.

This weekend I also tried out a little nook of a place on the Upper West Side called Recipe. This narrow, intimate space with just a few tables in back serves well-prepared seasonal food. My dining companion and I chose a balanced trio of dishes: a tomato and buffalo mozzarella tart with basil pesto and black truffle oil; seared Hudson Valley duck breast with wild mushrooms, baby turnips and blackberries; and a special of red snapper with asparagus and parsnips.

The tart was a light puff pastry topped with all the ingredients, a perfect appetizer. The snapper had a nice crisped skin and a pure fish flavor - a dish that tasted good and at least had the impression of being healthy. The sliced medium rare duck also had crispy skin and was just salty enough and flavorful. The only misstep came with dessert. We ordered the special  - a black mission fig rum cake topped with pistachio ice cream. This was flat in flavor and the bottom was too burned to even get much of the cake out. When asked, we were honest with the staff about not liking the dessert and though we weren't offered anything else instead, the cake was, appropriately, taken off of our bill. If Recipe can keep it up, it should succeed as a nice, little neighborhood restaurant.

Chicago: Green Zebra Review

There was a point in my life when I thought being a vegetarian might be a possibility. I ate chicken and fish, but felt maybe I could give those up. But as I've developed a love of food, I've broadened my horizons, indulging in other meats, and pretty much made the idea of being a vegetarian an impossibility. My enthusiasm for food means I am willing to try just about anything. Now I cannot imagine not wanting to eat pork in all its forms. I associate vegetarian with "limits".

When I am dining with vegetarians, I'll scan menus to make sure there is something available for them. And let me tell you, this has made me realize not many good restaurants actually make exclusively vegetarian dishes. So few restaurants that bill themselves as vegetarian serve more than bland, distasteful health food dishes that leave you hungry. I was impressed then when the unique menu of Green Zebra, which calls itself a "contemporary vegetarian experience", excited me. Not only were these vegetarian dishes, but ones that employed thoughtful juxtapositions of ingredients, many that I would consider under-utilized, such as farro or fava beans.

Our choices from Green Zebra's cocktail list: Bees Knees (North Shore Gin, lavender honey, lemon, up) and The Ponchatoula (Ron Botran Rum, Summer Berries, Mint, Rocks).

Small Bites

-It's a fine line between foodie and "foodiot". Those who know me or regularly read this blog, will know I'm guilty of some of this behavior. I just like to think I'm a nerd about it, not a foodiot.

-I'm a sucker for food markets. There's a new one in the basement of a church in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

-Gourmet compiles a guide to street food across the country and the world.

and

-Midtown Lunch debates whether New York or Portland, Oregon, is the better food cart city.

-Despite Julia Child's ties to France, she is apparently not well-known there.

Weekend Takedowns

Food events this weekend seem to be all about the takedown. Saturday, there's a chili pepper takedown at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens and Sunday a lamb takedown at the Highline Ballroom.

Profiling the Pioneer Woman

I'm an avid reader of food blogs - my Google Reader contains a list of 29 that I'll regularly run through. And there are many more that, though not on my regular reading list, I often come across and am at least generally familiar with. But today, from a profile in the LA Times, I learned of one I had never heard of, The Pioneer Woman. It apparently has a large following (yes, she's one of those - she's pioneered it right into a book) for its step-by-step photography with the recipes.

After a quick runthrough, I now want to cook chicken tikka masala or bacon onion cheddar biscuits or how about some spicy molasses cookies?

Now if only I could get myself to a grocery store.

The Modern Bar Room Helps Me Grow a Year Older

The other day, for my birthday, my friends suggested The Modern Bar room for pre-dinner drinks and appetizers. It was a perfect setting and the small plates menu lent itself to our purpose.

Philadelphia: Amada Review

My recent visit to Philadelphia happened to coincide with the first night of Restaurant Week there so of course a friend and I took advantage with a visit to Amada, which, according to my friend, is supposed to be the best tapas restaurant in the city.

When we arrived at this chic restaurant in Center City, we had a short wait in the long bar area, where we ordered our drinks: a crisp white Sangria and a violet Tequila martini. It was interesting to watch the violet martini being made, and yes, it was in fact violet. The friendly bartender explained that it was achieved through the addition of a type of pressed French violets, something that had been used around the turn of the 20th century but had disappeared for a long time.

Getting My Fill

Here's Frank Bruni again. He writes about eating since he left his position as Times restaurant critic. During this time, he ate roast chicken for four nights in a row.

There is almost something scientific-seeming about this, eating the same thing from different places on consecutive days. A method for evaluating food, untainted - or less tainted - by cravings being satisfied, faulty memories or the distracting savoriness of other dishes.

Constant eating out can take its toll. Bruni writes, "In its wake I've noticed that I want to cook more than I ever did in the past, and on the few occasions over the last few weeks when I've been with friends and cooking was called for, I've found myself volunteering."

Chicago: Hot Doug's Review

Chicago is a hot dog town. But I'd been resisting a friend's recommendation of Hot Doug's because I don't like hot dogs. In fact, not only do I not like them, they nauseate me. But on a whim, I decided to just take a look at the menu. I discovered it was much more than a hot dog place; it had a long list of sausages, which I DO like - pork, chicken, even veggie - and tons of special sausages made from interesting ingredients. So it was, with extra time before my flight home, I decided to make the trek to Hot Doug's.

Aldea Review Update

Earlier this month I returned to Aldea for a second visit. The first time I gave it a rave. I was pleased to find that the restaurant continued to impress during this visit. The duck rice that was so good the first time went over well again. And here are several new dishes I was able to try:

Knollcrest Farm Egg with bacalao, black olive and potato
A small, but delicious mixture served in the eggshell.

Philadelphia: My First Cheesesteak

 My first Philly cheesesteak came from Tony Luke's at the Phillies ballpark. I decided to go all out and chose the wiz cheese and fried onions. It was a large sandwich- well for most people, but I polished this off easily! Though i generally dont eat beef I make exceptions for trying something that seems essential to the time or place. Yes, I believe in something as cheesy as food provides you a better sense of a place.

I enjoyed the saltiness of the cheesesteak and the idea that i was indulging in this very Philly tradition. Yet, it wasn't quite what I'd want out of an ideal cheesesteak. I'd want crispier or caramelized onions. Id want the meat to be more grilled with charred edges and oh, a toasted roll too. I suppose this is a question for the more experienced cheesesteak eaters/fans - what makes a perfect cheesesteak and are there versions like my idea of one?

Ice Cream Truck Transforms for Winter

While I think ice cream remains a terrific dessert through the cold winter months, it seems many do not agree with me. So what happens to the ice cream trucks then? It seems Van Leeuwen is
transforming itself into an ice cream/coffee truck serving
Intelligentsia coffee.

Things to Look Forward To

Posting will be light this week as I travel. But get ready for a post about a highly anticipated dinner in Chicago. More to come on my first cheesesteak at the Phillies ballpark, a great Restaurant Week tapas dinner in Philly, and (I hope) on eating in Portland, Maine, from my guest bloggers. So check back!

Portland, Maine: Duckfat Visual Review

Here is a quick visual review of Duckfat restaurant in Portland, Maine. This comes from some guest bloggers who say more details will come at a later time.

French fries:

Peanut Butter & Jelly:

Meatloaf Panini with Pickled Onions:

Raise Your Rice Awareness

September is National Rice Month! There doesn't seem to be much real significance to this, but as a rice lover, I felt the need to mention it.

New Amsterdam Market

The New Amsterdam market has established itself as a monthly market at South Street Seaport. It returns this Sunday, September 13 in conjunction with a celebration of Henry Hudson. I am all for more open food markets in the city. I visited this one when it was held one day last summer and tried samples of razor clams and soups and breads. It was a really nice combination of vendors selling produce and those selling prepared foods or other edible goods. It was also where I first tried People's Pops, an interesting local popsicle operation. If you get a chance, I'd recommend checking it out.

Shake Shack Expands

Shake Shack is becoming into its own mini-empire within Danny Meyer's larger empire. Not only are there plans for it to expand to Dubai and Saudi Arabia, but New York is getting a third location, in Nolita.

UPDATE: And some people just don't know how to appreciate a good thing, like innovative custard flavors. I won't protest until I've tried and determined that there is something to dislike about them. But the attempt to bring together seemingly disparate ingredients is not enough to dissuade a tasting!

Fresh Frank Bruni

Frank Bruni may be gone as Times dining critic, but he's still writing plenty. For those who can't get enough of him, here's an essay on eating anxiety from The Atlantic Food Channel.

Tabla Bread Bar Visual Review

Tabla Bread Bar is one of my standby restaurants and one that I consistently list among my favorites. It's a great place with modern, non-traditional Indian food and a casual, but nice atmosphere. They make great fruity cocktails and flavorful food.

Here's a brief visual run-through one of my recent meals there:

Bread Bar Ceviche: Nova Scotia halibut marinated with mango chutney, peanuts & chilies

Manila clams in curry sauce

Coffee and Donuts

Despite having to work, I celebrated a lovely Labor Day with Shake Shack's Monday custard flavor, Coffee and Donuts, and some friends. The Shake line was intimidating - longer than I have ever seen it. It often rounds the curve on the edge of Madison Square Park, but I had never seen it snake so far as to nearly form a semicircle!

So it was with great glee that we marched up to the B line and immediately heard "I can help the next B line guest." It was so quick that we weren't even ready to order (not that there was much to consider - just a cone or a cup). And within minutes we were savoring creamy coffee custard with large chunks of cakey donuts that somehow managed not to get soggy despite being nestled in the custard. Here you can see my cup before tasting and a closeup post-excavation.

This was good enough that even after I finished mine, I was still happy to help my friend finish hers! Coffee and Donuts ranks in my top three Shack flavors alongside cake batter and Red, White and Blueberry.

Small Bites

-This might be more of a big bite than a small one: The Nation has put out a food issue that includes pieces by Dan Barber and Michael Pollan.

-On your next flight, you might have the option to purchase slightly better airline food.

-When will the cupcake craze die?

-There has been plenty of blogging about various recession specials for restaurants in New York City. The Wall Street Journal decided to check out a couple of prix-fixe menus a little farther afield, in the Hudson Valley.

-T magazine's Moment blog has a new food column by NYT dining reporter Peter Meehan.

-There is some inventive cooking happening in a country not often on the forefront of the culinary scene - Norway.

Buenos Aires: La Vineria de Gualterio Bolivar Review

Food can be a cure for what ails you.

Let our last meal in Buenos Aires at La Vineria de Gualterio Bolivar be a testament to that.

An Outsider's View of the Times Cafeteria

A review for those who might actually be intrigued by what, to me, is the subpar Times cafeteria. I was more interested to see how well it could impress an outsider. No doubt, daytime options far outweigh the nighttime ones, but everything sort of has the same flavor and somehow I always end up back at the salad bar. And it's not really much cheaper than what you can get outside.

Small Bites

-Several restaurants around the city have spawned their own ice cream carts hawking ice cream from their storefronts. The Times taste tests several of them.

-And what better to go with ice cream than...Korean fried chicken! If you haven't had it, read Gourmet's essay about a first-timer. And then head to Mad for Chicken (formerly Bon Chon) in Koreatown.

-If watching Julie & Julia made you want to buy Julia Child's cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, don't bother says Regina Schrambling on Slate. Why? Because you'll never cook from it.

-When I am investigating a restaurant's worth, I sometimes check Yelp for a quick reference. But perhaps it is not to be trusted. Some places are rewarding or bribing people to give them good reviews. But I know never to trust only one source. I'm a more thorough researcher than that. Cross check!

-The Atlantic touts Jeni's Splendid ice creams, which Food in a Nutshell wrote about a couple of months ago when a Brooklyn market began carrying pints of it. If only I had known about this place during my years in Ohio.

Fall Previews

The Times annual Fall Restaurant Preview issue is out today.
Time Out New York and New York Magazine also released their lists this week.

The previews are a good way to see who is doing what and to get an idea of what's coming in different areas of the city. But I never take them too seriously for a good number of them never show up or are long delayed beyond the fall.

Shake Shack September

It's the first of the month and Shake Shack fans know what that means - a new custard calendar! I'm most excited to see the return of the Coffee and Donuts flavor because I missed my chance for that a couple of months ago. I'd love to meet the person who comes up with the Shack's flavors - he or she really seems to think outside of the box for flavor inspiration and brings together flavors I wouldn't otherwise think went together. Saffron? Pistachio? Who knew!

Monday: Coffee and Donuts
Tuesday: Red Velvet
Wednesday: Cinnamon Almond Horchata
Thursday: Balsamic Fig
Friday: Saffron Pistachio
Saturday: Caramel Apple
Sunday: Shirley Temple