5.07.2009

Kevin, this one's for you...

I have a friend, Kevin, who I met through Adam...and he's all about the food. And the drink. Being Oi-rish and all. For reasons I can't quite guess, he's a regular reader of my blog. But he confessed to Adam that he'll often get halfway through a post and realize that it's about kids' books. And my posts have certainly been kid-lit-heavy lately, as all my foodie photos are locked in my computer right now, held captive by the evil tyrant, Time Warner.
So this foodie blog post is dedicated to my friend-in-food, Kevin. Cheers!

- I finished reading A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from my Kitchen Table by Molly Wizenberg, known to the food blogosphere as Orangette. The recipes are inspiring, though the only one I've tried at this point is Burg's French Toast (read: fried French toast...and it is out-of-this-world). I pretty much agree with the reviews I've read about the book: the passages about her late father are poetic and poignant. I enjoyed her stories of Paris. However, I also agree with the reviews when they mentioned Molly's relationship with her now-husband: the passages about their relationship just got overwhelming and leaned toward the saccharine and cloying. They lacked - at least in the writing - the emotional depth seen elsewhere in the book. Overall, though, an enjoyable read. I'm looking forward to making her Butternut Soup with Pear, Cider, and Vanilla Bean! And thanks to Molly for including the recipes from her book on her website - it's great to be able to link to them!

- Listen up, all you New Yorkers! There's a new kid on the block at the Union Square Greenmarket: Grazin' Angus Acres. If you haven't met them yet, do so immediately. They're super nice and helpful: during our first encounter, we asked for a skirt steak. He (unfortunately, we didn't get his name) pulled it out of the cooler but also pulled out a flap steak (which we had never heard of). He gave us a lesson about flap steak, which is actually more complicated than I expected, but here's the bottom line: it is incredibly similar to a skirt or flank steak but costs half the price. Grazin' Angus also has breakfast sausage and hot dogs to swoon over - there are no words, truly.
Lastly, they're eggs are unreal. My friend Josh picked up some meat one morning from GAA. When he opened his bag, the purveyor saw eggs from another stand. He challenged Josh: give me one egg from that dozen, and I'll give you one of our eggs - see which one is better. He marked GAA's egg with an "x". Josh confirmed that Grazin' Angus' egg kicked arse all over its competitor. Adam picked up a dozen last weekend and I've never tasted anything like it.
Don't visit the market without stopping by their booth. This is their first year so we want to make them feel extra welcome so they'll come back forever and ever.
- This article in the NY Times made me long for a hamburger. But I was dismayed by Shake Shack and Rare being so low in the rankings - I always counted them among my faves. On the other hand, I've never had a Peter Luger burger. Must put on to-do list.

- You might have heard about a little thing called the James Beard Foundation Awards...the 2009 winners were recently announced. In particular, I want to congratulate Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page who won in the Reference and Scholarship category for The Flavor Bible: The Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity, Based on the Wisdom of America's Most Imaginative Chefs (Little, Brown). I haven't reviewed Flavor Bible here (though I own it), but I did review What to Drink with What You Eat - both books are culinary library essentials. Karen and Andrew were the first people I met "in the industry," and they were both incredibly generous and authentic. So congratulations to them both - their success is well-deserved!
Eat, drink, and cheers to Kevin!

4 comments:

Pfang69 said...

Hahaha, you are too funny. Love the posting, thanks so much for the shout out.
Couple of points.
1. While I did indeed say that about the blog, it is not a bad thing to read about the childrens books you review, I actually quite enjoy them, just want to state that for the record.
2. OMG we featured Grazin Acres here for Earth week and it was a huge hit, expensive as hell, but wowser, what an amazingly succulent piece of meat, the peeps here really enjoyed it.
3. I saw the results of the Beard Awards, I saw the flavour bible mention and could not help thinking of you.
Thats it for now, keep up the amazing posts, I really enjoy reading them, and I will make a concious effort to comment on them moving forward. Have the best day ever, oh and Happy Mothers Day!!!!

Karen and Andrew said...

Dearest Laura,

Thanks so much for your lovely shout-out re: our 2009 James Beard Book Award this week for THE FLAVOR BIBLE -- we are still pinching ourselves!!

All the best,
Karen & Andrew
http://www.becomingachef.com
(where we have a few fun photos posted of this unforgettable night!)

Stasia D said...

I have to put you in touch with my friend Phil. He and some of his foodie friends had a burger club, where they combed the boroughs for the best! He has definite opinions on the burgers!

SpyGuitar said...

The guy's name at Grazin' Angus is Dan. Next time, try the rib-eye sandwich steaks. They're not cheap, but boy they're worth it.