Good. Food. Stories.

Happy Birthday Good.Food.Stories.

Danielle — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:00:19 +0000

Time flies when you’re having fun and Good.Food.Stories. is officially one year old. (GFS, like me, is a Leo.)

This all got started with a simple desire to share our love for food. Casey was regularly answering emails from friends requesting restaurant recommendations and all sorts of cooking advice. I was always snooping around looking for unusual places to eat and an outlet for my never ceasing curiosity. A few emails were bounced back and forth, we picked a name, bought a domain and our chronicle of delicious conversations began.
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Frank O’Hara’s Lunch Poems

Casey — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 11:48:41 +0000

All summer, I’ve been obsessing over the ghosts of old New York, lamenting the loss of iconic diners and landmarks that maybe never existed and thinking of Frank O’Hara. O’Hara, a poet who lived in New York in the 1950s and ’60s and who died young, as the great ones do, in an accident on Fire Island at age 40, was a jauntily heartbreaking chronicler of everyday life and the small details that make the city sing.

image courtesy of Flickr user DC Products

(You might know his work if you’re a Mad Men fan and remember Season Two’s plotline hinging on the book Meditations in an Emergency, read by dreamy Jon Hamm.)

But why am I telling you all of this? We’re a food site, not American Lit 103. Well, my dears, instead of wolfing down some halal chicken from a street vendor during his lunch breaks at the Museum of Modern Art, Frank used the time to write poetry at breakneck speed. His 1964 tome Lunch Poems was thus named by City Lights publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti (the same man who published Allen Ginsberg’s Howl and defended the book against obscenity charges) for the provenance of its contents.

And so, for all you readers dreaming of the freedom of your lunch hour, here’s one of my favorite pieces summing up New York in summer, celebrating those few shining minutes when you’re released from your windowless cubicle and are able to immerse yourself in a glass of papaya juice and the crowded lifeblood of the city.
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Farm Friday: Local 111

Danielle — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 15:08:28 +0000

Every year my good friend Stevie plans an extravaganza around his birthday. He makes it clear that he doesn’t want gifts or cards, only the participation of his wide group of wonderful friends. Years ago, we rented out part of a club and danced till dawn. Last year it was karaoke and bowling. Two years ago, we had a simple, cheap dinner in Chinatown which ended around 11pm. But the party didn’t really begin until we were escorted to a plumber’s van which drove us to a roller rink on the southern tip of Staten Island.

This year, Stevie rented a house near Hudson, New York for a week of reading, swimming, singing, throwing the ball around the yard, hammock sleeping, star-gazing, and of course, eating. I love Stevie. He cultivates pleasure and then shares it generously.
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GUEST POST: C.C.’s Safe Eats in McLeod Ganj, India

Good. Food. Stories. Contributor — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 11:02:24 +0000

Moving on from the global cuisine of London, intrepid contributor C.C. finds herself in an old outpost of the British Empire: McLeod Ganj, India, home of the Dalai Lama and the headquarters of the Tibetan government in exile. She eats, prays she won’t develop a stomach virus, and loves much of what she finds—especially the chocolate desserts.

In a particularly efficient way of checking major experiences off life’s to-do list, C.C. has fulfilled two lifelong goals simultaneously by going to McLeod Ganj, India to do a yoga teacher training course. It’s a rigorous program with early morning meditation, classes in anatomy, philosophy, ayurveda, yoga ethics/business, and four hours of asana practice a day, which makes a girl hungry and justified to eat whatever she wants, even typically taboo foods like crepes, cupcakes, and pizza.

This is a good thing, since 14 of the 16 people on the course become predictably ill as will happen to western travelers to India, thus requiring a paranoid girl like C.C. to beef up her attempts to avoid parasites, amoebas, bacterias, giardia, hepatitis, and all other manner of unsavory stowaway germs lurking in the hill town’s water supply and on any cooking or cutting surface. She assiduously avoids anything that may have been grown in manure like fresh vegetables, things with absorbent qualities like tofu, and all meat—not a big deal for C.C. and really appropriate in mostly veg-India anyway, not to mention yogic.

CC and the monkey disagree on dietary restrictions

This means restricting her diet to very cooked and safe foods like bread (C.C. has no appreciation for rice, which she considers a useless carb. Sorry, Asia.); omelets (thankfully McLeod Ganj isn’t that vegetarian); “curd,” which is the most relentlessly watery yogurt known to humankind and may quite possibly be crying as you eat it, such is the endless seepage of water that spews forth; pizza; and the occasional curry when feeling daring.
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Homemade Cheez Wiz

Casey — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 12:54:15 +0000

Since I come from the western side of Pennsylvania and not the eastern, my iconic sandwich familiarity has always centered around chipped chopped ham or kolbassi instead of cheesesteaks. And whether for better or worse (I’m not trying to start another PA culture war) we don’t put Cheez Wiz on our pork products out there in the “Burgh.

In fact, apart from a college-era flirtation with Tostitos-brand “queso” in a jar, I stayed away from gelatinous cheese spreads of all kinds, preferring to melt shredded cheddar over my nachos or throwing a few hunks of Velveeta into my mac and cheese sauce if necessary. I’m not sure I’ve ever tasted true Cheez Wiz in my life, to be completely frank.

But when Danielle requested a homemade Cheez Wiz recipe after reading my nostalgic ode to broiler nachos, how could I say no? Plus, I had an ace up my sleeve in the form of Grant Achatz.
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Neighbourhood Guide: Broadway Market, East London

Good. Food. Stories. Contributor — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 10:22:27 +0000

Today’s Neighbourhood Guide (yes, that extra U is important here) takes us to London’s East End, where American transplant Meredith Brown walks us through a bustling Saturday market that’s been providing the Brits with global delicacies and some veddy, veddy traditional (but tasty) foods for the past century. Jellied eel, anyone?

Oh, the East End of London—home to the original Cockney, successive waves of immigrant communities, the YBAs (Damian Hirst and his ilk), that scandalous soap East Enders, the Museum of Childhood, the 2012 Olympics, and yours truly.

Since the 17th century, when the French Hugeunots set up camp just to the east of the medieval City of London, the East End has served as London’s working-class, immigrant community. In the 18th century, the Irish weavers moved in, followed by Ashkenazi Jews in the 19th century; the Bangladeshi community arrived in the 20th century and more recently, drawn by the cheap rents and bicycle-friendly streets, artists and their hipster cousins have joined the ‘hood. Each of these groups brought their own vibrant customs and cuisines, and the resulting mix offers anyone willing to venture outside the comforts of Central London a plethora of interesting things to do, see, buy, and eat.

Brick Lane, home to more curry houses than you can shake a stick at, is probably the best-known culinary street in the East End, but there are plenty of other avenues for the dedicated foodie to explore. Take, for example, the cornucopia that is Broadway Market. (If the street looks familiar, especially the barbershop, it may be because it was featured in David Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises.)

Running between London Fields park and Regent’s Canal, Broadway Market (along with my flat) sits at the northernmost bit of the East End. The pedestrian-filled thoroughfare has hosted a weekly food market since the 1890s, and today’s version has more than 80 stalls of fresh produce, organic meat, locally grown flowers, ethically sourced coffee, artisanal food, vintage clothing, handmade crafts, etc.

The stalls officially open each Saturday at 9:00 am, and by noon the street is thronging with local residents buying their weekly groceries, hipsters nursing hangovers with Thai green curry or Caribbean rice cooked on the spot, little kids weaving through the crowds as their parents sample Stilton, Comté, and Emmenthaler from one of several cheesemongers, and tourists snapping pictures of the accordionist busker and his tap-dancing ladyfriend.
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Bayard’s Ale House, New York

Casey — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 11:50:16 +0000

As a nation of drunks, we tend to overromanticize and idealize the neighborhood bar. You should never have to fight for a barstool. The beer should flow freely and you should be able to indulge in fried delicacies at all hours. It’s not a special destination, there’s not a dress code (on the contrary, walking into this mystical place should be as comfortable as putting on a pair of old sweats), and it’s hard to find one bar that will pack all these qualities into four booze-soaked walls.

The object of my undying affection? I found it four years ago at Bayard’s Ale House, a bar as it should be.

In 2006, Bayard’s replaced the former Sazerac House, which had a steady following (including John Belushi and Norman Mailer, according to The Villager) for 41 years. It still retains some the Sazerac’s old Village clientele—upon my first visit, I shared the long wooden banquette with an aging transvestite—and looks like it’s been around much longer than the past four years, which makes sense, considering the building in which Bayard’s resides was built in 1826.

The interior is suitably dim with exposed brick, a wooden bar with brass accents, and a tin ceiling festooned with hanging white Christmas lights. But the banks of windows curving around the facade of its corner perch at Hudson and Charles keep Bayard’s from veering off into dive-ville (see Crow, Stoned and Whiskey Pub, Nancy for stellar examples of this genre), with light streaming in for people-watching on sunny afternoons or summer happy hours.
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Farm Friday: Herbed Burgers and Chimichurri Sauce

Danielle — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 13:38:00 +0000

I spent the holiday weekend in the Hudson Valley at the home of a friend who recently planted a lush, beautiful kitchen garden. Every time the breeze blew, the scent of cilantro, basil, and dill would waft through the backyard. Though I consider myself content in the big city, I seriously envy the ability to maintain such a kitchen garden. Oh, to step outside my door and pick fresh mint for lemonade!

Given it was the 4th, our group felt it would be un-American to eat anything but grilled burgers, though we also wanted to take advantage of all the fresh herbs. Rather than go potato salad crazy, I decided to put a large mixture of herbs in the burger meat.
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Cooking demonstrations at The Edible Garden

Editors — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 10:18:46 +0000

Want to meet your favorite Good. Food. Stories. editors up close and personal and sample some of our signature dishes? If you’re in New York this summer, you’re in luck, because we’ll be showcasing our favorite seasonal foods with locally-grown ingredients at the New York Botanical Garden’s Edible Garden.

On Sunday, August 1, Danielle and Casey will be demonstrating our famous Spaghetti Carbonara as we celebrate all that is good about garlic. And on Sunday, September 19, we’ll show you how to make a Roman gladiator salad with shaved fennel and oranges.

Cooking demonstrations are at 1:00 pm and 3:00 pm on both days, and we’d love to see familiar faces in the audience. Allow yourselves time to stroll through the NYBG’s 250 acres of more than a million plants; The Edible Garden itself has four (count ‘em, four) kitchen gardens—including a culinary herb garden curated by Martha Stewart!—and the Conservatory Container Garden, which helps all you small-spacers out with ideas for growing on your balconies and rooftops.

If you’re working on your own homesteader’s plot of land, home gardening demonstrations are happening each weekend too. Take a look through the complete schedule of events to see if anything else strikes your fancy, and if you buy tickets online, you’ll save $2 off each ticket with waived print-at-home fees. Plus, all proceeds benefit the Children’s Gardening Program.

The Edible Garden runs through October 17 at the New York Botanical Garden (directions here—easy as pie using Metro-North), but mark your calendars now for Sunday, August 1 and Sunday, September 19 at 1:00 pm and 3:00 pm. And bring your appetite.

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Iced, iced coffee

Casey — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 12:10:53 +0000

They say that drinking hot beverages on a hot day actually helps lower your body temperature—has anyone ever tested that theory? All I know is that the 90˚+ temps shown in the forecast mean it’s going to be a brutal week for those of us who live and die by our oven and stovetop burners.

It’s weeks like these that the world’s coffee addicts turn to the iced version, and as someone who’s back on the coffee wagon, I’ll most definitely be joining them. But you absolutely know I’m not fooling around with that watered-down Dunkin’ Donuts or Starbucks stuff when I can be guzzling a far superior iced coffee from the comforts of my back porch.

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