Food and Things » East Village

Milk Bar to Open on Upper West Side

Laura Weiss — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 00:20:24 +0000

Momufuku Milk Bar, NY. Photo by crunch1977 via flckr.

I love the Milk Bar’s pistachio layer cake. But the last time I was there, they didn’t have it any more. Maybe they’ll bring it back for their Upper West Side opening, scheduled for a September, says the West Side Rag.

Not familiar with the Milk Bar? It’s part of the David Chang empire and consists of outposts sprinkled throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Milk Bar features soft serve concocted to taste like cereal milk. I was never a huge fan of cereal milk and I don’t like it in my ice cream. But if you scoop up every last drop of milk from your cereal bowl every morning, then this is the treat for you. Other baked goods include the Compost Cookie® and Crack Pie®.

Click here to view Milk Bar’s menu.

Upper West Side Butcher Competes in Whole Foods Meat Meet

Laura Weiss — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 13:40:22 +0000

Butcher from Bilgit, Hunza, Pakistan. By Jobopa via Flickr.

Butchers and butchering are big. No big surprise then that Whole Foods, the organically-leaning supermarket chain, is trying to hop onto the trend. On June 22nd, you can cheer on Upper West Side butcher Orlando Vega (he wields his cleaver at the Columbus Circle Whole Foods) who will meet three other Whole Foods butchers in a face-off to determine who is the best knife man in the store’s northeast region.

Famed meat purveyor Pat LaFrieda and food writer Josh Ozersky will sit on the panel of judges.

You’ll have to take the train to the Bowery store, but there should be some Upper West Side pride here. The only butcher to be selected for the meat meet who hails from Manhattan is an Upper West Side-based meat carver. Perhaps that’s appropriate. After all, we Upper West Siders love our grocery stores.

Here are the details:

WHAT: Whole Foods Market’s Best Butcher Competition brings together what the chain claims are Whole Food’s top butchers in the Northeast. Contestants will be graded on items like presentation and efficiency. Other categories include workmanship, visual appeal, cleanliness, knife-handling skills, and trim specification.

WHO: Whole Foods Market northeast region butchers tasked with cutting up their meat in less than three minutes. Butchers include: Orlando Vega(WFM Columbus Circle), Jim Crookston (WFM White Plains), Chris Durko (WFM Madison, New Jersey) and Sal Cacicia (WFM Lake Grove Commons)

JUDGES: On the panel are Pat LaFrieda, along wit food writer Josh Ozersky as well as a Whole Foods official.

WHEN: JUNE 22^ND, 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm

WHERE: Whole Foods Market Bowery, 95 East Houston St.

Wedding Foods at Astor Center March 11 Featuring Momofuko, Landmarc, Other Purveyors

Laura Weiss — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:26:38 +0000

Eat, drink, get married. Wedding bells are ringing at the Astor Center March 11 which is displaying festive wedding-friendly foods from the likes of Momofuku Milk Bar, Ronni-Sue’s Chocolates and The Cleaver Company.

Wedding cake. Photo by QuintanaRoo via flickr.

Could one of these purveyors be your dream wedding caterer?

Tastings of food and champagne will be offered.

One couple will win a hands-on cooking class and dinner party complete with wine pairings for up to 14 guests, appropriate for a bridal shower, rehearsal dinner or a bachelor/bachelorette party.

Purchase tickets.

Astor Center
Location: All Four Spaces
Price: $15.00
Date: Thu, Mar 11th, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Ice Cream Event at New York’s Astor Center Slated for Sept. 1

Laura Weiss — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 19:56:54 +0000

Van Leeuwen ice cream truck.

I scream, you scream. Yeah, yeah, yeah. OK, who doesn’t love ice cream? In fact, I love it so much, I have a book coming out next year on the history of ice cream around the world.

Meanwhile, if you want to get your licks in on this delicious subject, come hear Jeri Quinzio talk about ice cream history at the Astor Center. I’ve read Quinzio’s book, which is a well-researched treatment of ice cream’s journey from elite treat to a dessert for the masses. Starting with the French and Italians way back in the 16th century, Quinzio walks you through ice cream legends and lore.

Bored by history? Ben Van Leeuwen will teach you how to make ice cream at home that resembles the lucious varities he dishes out from his sunny yellow trucks.

Here’s the info:

Slow U: Ice Cream, from Sugar and Snow
with TheDairyShow.com , Slow Food NYC, Jeri Quinzio, Ben Van Leeuwen

Location: The Study
Price: $45.00
Date: Tue, Sep 1st, 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM

Father’s Day: NY Beer and Chocolate Class

Laura Weiss — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:40:12 +0000

Father’s Day chocolate cupcakes. Photo by Sugar Daze (f/k/a LittleMissCupcakeParis) via Flickr.

What Dad doesn’t love beer and chocolate? You can pair the two in a special Father’s Day class. Or if your Dad is a cocktail maven, sign him up for a class on how to mix classics like the Grasshopper and the Pink Lady.

Take a look at these Father’s Day ideas:

Is that Chocolate in My Beer?

What: An afternoon of chocolate and beer. You’ll learn about the many varieties of cocoa beans and chocolate, how the Aztec and Maya discovered chocolate, and how to make your own chocolate bars from the bean. Learn all of this with Nat Bletter, who has studied and made chocolate for over 5 years.

In the class everyone will participate in making chocolate bars from scratch after a short talk on the history of chocolate with some tastings, and you’ll go home with recipes and a bar of chocolate.

Where: Jimmy’s No. 43 – 43 East 7th street (downstairs), Manhattan

When: Sunday, June 21, 2:00pm – 5:00pm

Who: Jimmy Carbone, owner of Jimmy’s 43, fine beer aficionado and originator of the Good Beer Seal of Approval will pair Nat’s homemade chocolate with a selection of artisanal beers.

How Much: Admission: Slow Food Members – $30
Non members – $35
Tickets: Available on-line only at BrownPaperTickets.com
Proceeds will go towards Slow Food NYC’s Harvest Time in Schools Program.

The Evolution of Cocktails Post Prohibition through Today

What: Prohibition was a boon to cocktail culture as we know it. But many of the era’s delicious concoctions have since fallen out of fashion. Rediscover iconic cocktails such as The Grasshopper, The Pink Lady, and others. In this hands-on workshop you’ll find out how to craft these historic libations while learning the fun, factual and mythical back-stories on the ghosts of cocktails past, and how their recipes have evolved over time.

Who: Mixologist Charles Hardwick of Blue Owl Cocktail Room

Where: Location: The Study, The Astor Center, 399 Lafayette St. at East 4th St. 212 674 7501

When: Sat, Jun 27th, 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM

How Much: $65.00. Click here for tickets.

Event: TV Cooking Shows from the 1940s to Iron Chef

Laura Weiss — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 01:43:11 +0000

It may seem that TV cooking shows were invented by the Food Network. But cooking on TV–for fun and instruction–has been around since the dawn of television in the 1940s. If you want to learn more about how these shows evolved, then tune in to this Culinary Historians of NY program at the Astor Center May 20. And…you never know, a Food Network scout could be lurking in the audience!

WHAT:

Kathleen Collins, author of Watching What We Eat: The Evolution of Television Cooking Shows leads the audience through 50 years of TV cooking show history–a history that tells us lots about how we cook and how we live.

WHO:

Kathleen Collins is an author and researcher who has studied and written about television, media, history, popular culture, and food. She has a Master’s degree in journalism from NYU, with a specialization in cultural reporting and criticism, as well as a Master’s in library science.

WHERE:

Astor Center
399 Lafayette Street, 2nd fl. (at East 4th St.)
New York, NY
Please enter on Lafayette Street

WHEN:

6:30 pm Check-In and Reception | 7:00 pm Lecture

$40 Non-Members and Guests | $25 CHNY Members | $22 CHNY Student & Senior Members

Join CHNY now so you can attend at the Member rate: http://www.culinaryhistoriansny.org/join.html

The last event sold out very early. Buy your tickets securely online.

Please purchase tickets by May 18.

Get Great Bacon in the East Village

Laura Weiss — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 15:58:59 +0000

It’s a schlep if you live on the Upper West Side, but the bacon at East Market Village & Del i is just as good–maybe better–than what you’ll find at the Greenmarket. And it’s comparably priced as well.

This bacon comes sliced thin. It fries up nicely with a slightly nutty flavor.

What’s more, it’s fun to step inside this relic from the days when the East Village boasted a sizable Ukrainian and Polish population. There are sausages, pork, veal and beef, and and the place sports the heady aroma of garlic. The customers seem to be mostly Eastern European, so it’s not hard to feel like you’re back in the East Village’s pre-hipster days.

East Market Village & Deli
39 Second Ave.
139 2nd Ave.
near 9th St.
212 228 5590

The First Annual NYC Chowder Slam is Set for March 21

Laura Weiss — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 18:09:17 +0000

The First Annual NYC Chowder Slam is being held at Jimmy’s No. 43 in the East Village. I have never had a good chowder in New York, but maybe these particular soups will rise to the occasion. And, it’s all for a good cause–to support New Amsterdam Market, which is trying to get enough funds together to create a year-round market for grocers, mongers, and other purveyors of local food.

Here are the details:

Saturday, March 21
12 noon-5 pm
Jimmy’s No. 43
43 East 7th Street
New York, NY

Join us for for a day of tasting chowders of varied exciting influences, tall tales and chalices of brew.
Call for cooks, eaters, press….
$20 at the door will benefit New Amsterdam Market, a local organization promoting our region’s agriculture and building a new community of purveyors, whose common goal is to pioneer environmentally and socially responsible food production: www.newamsterdammarket.org
Professional, burgeoning professional, and swarthy seafaring cooks will be sharing maritime delights + Jimmy’s No.43 will have a strong selection of New England craft beers.
Happy Clams!

East Village: Porchetta for Fabulous Pork Sandwiches

Laura Weiss — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 20:48:16 +0000

When you walk into Porchetta, the diminutive sandwich shop on E. 7th street, you instantly know what the place is all about. Front and center looms a glass case displaying glistening slabs of just-roasted pork loin that’s been rubbed with fennel pollen imported from Italy.

With subway tile on the walls and a simple counter that seats six, Porchetta is mostly a take-out place. But if you eat there, like I did, it’s a fabulous sensory experience. The aroma of the succulent pork roast (pork belly is wrapped around the loin and roasted for five-and-a-half hours) is divine.

Served on a crusty roll, the sandwich is delicious, (some say it’s too pricey) but quite fatty. Half a sandwich was plenty for me. The server did suggest cutting the richness with a side of greens. That probably would have been a good idea.

Sarah Jenkins, the chef, discovered porchetta in Italy. Explains Serious Eats, porchetta “is a crazy delicious whole boned and roasted pig seasoned with lots of salt, pepper, garlic, and wild fennel.”

Other items on nine-item menu include a mozzarella sandwich for any vegetarians who wander in, cooking greens, and crispy potatoes and burnt ends.

If you really want one of these sensational sandwiches, don’t wait until late in the day. When the pork roast is gone, it’s gone.

Porchetta

110 E. 7th St.

New York, NY 10009

212 777 2151