eat drink one woman

Alex Witchel covers the re-opening of the 2nd Ave. Deli in this article. If you're like me, and you miss that deli like you miss your (goy) bubbe, it'll break your heart and make you hungry for some matzoh ball soup (with noodles and carrots).
I am pretty thrilled that it's opening just one block from my work. Here are just a handful of the article's really cherce quotes:

Abe Lebewohl to a conference of food writers: "'What am I gonna tell you?' he said. 'My food will kill you.'"

One employee on Abe: "[He] came to this country with a dollar and a dream except for the dollar."

Russ and Daughters' Mark Federman on keeping it all in the family: "I just think it’s right that there’s a Russ angsting over every piece of fish that goes out the door.”

Steve Cohen, general manager for 2nd Ave. Deli on who's in the kitchen: "They are Puerto Rican, Chinese, Haitian, Indian and from Central America. It’s the U.N. back there.”

Cohen again on the clientele: "But my favorite was when we had five nuns eating matzoh balls served by a Lebanese waiter — in a kosher deli. That’s New York.”

Quoted by Tim Russert this morning on Meet the Press:

"A woman is like a teabag. You never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water." -- Eleanor Roosevelt

The details at The Spotted Pig make the place -- grease markered menu on a giant mirror, brown butcher paper on the tables, jade brocade booths, potted flowers hedging weathered French doors, exhaust-free breeze from a lovely Greenwich St. corner. I don't know if it was the PG Tips or the barrel-shaped mug of warm Six Points Bengali, but to me, the place feels as endearingly British as a tea cozy.

I'm a sucker for chicken liver, and their bar toasts are ideal -- warm, chartreuse olive oil-doused croutons with a friendly roof of finely chopped, herb-speckled liver. I think I tasted pancetta in there. Creamy smoked haddock chowder, brightened with a touch of vinegar, came with the most gorgeous crunchy pillow crackers. But $15 for the radish salad with parm? With a smattering of wild arugula and radish sprouts? Don't get me wrong, it was good, but it's definitely in the DIY department. It's hard for me to stomach paying $15 for a whole wedge of parm, let alone a salad whose main component, French breakfast radishes, sell at the Greenmarket for $1.50 per bunch.

Looking forward to the next visit, but I'll probably stick to the heavy stuff next time.

The Spotted Pig
314 W. 11th St. at Greenwich St.
A, C, E to W. 14th St., L to 8th Ave.
212-620-0393

I was a little worried about turnout for the Gourmet Institute panel on blogging -- I mean, who wants to listen to a bunch of bloggers when Masaharu Morimoto is down the hall doing a cooking demo, and wine is being liberally poured into shiny crystal in the tasting room? As it turns out, we had a healthy audience of about 30, mostly young people in casual garb. Before we settled in the auditorium, Ben Leventhal of Eater wondered if anyone was going to throw tomatoes.

It was a fun discussion, and I'm glad there were no tomatoes -- though it might have been fun to parry a little. Some highlights:

Ben Leventhal (Eater) revealed that Eater's readers are half male, half female, are mostly 25-34, go out to eat 5 times a week on average (!), and have 2-5 cocktails every time they go out. "So they're drunk when they're reading Eater," he joked. Adorable. He also thinks that blogging has already become a legitimate job and speculated that strong bloggers, like those at Gawker, could be making $100K/yr.

Tyler Colman (Dr. Vino) doesn't allow wine advertisers on his blog because he wants people to trust his recs, and pay-to-play is the fastest way to lose that audience. He makes a pittance on advertising and makes more from the business that has grown out of the blog -- private wine tastings, classes, etc. I really enjoyed his friendly, inclusive demeanor. He's the opposite of a wine snob. I'm looking forward to perusing his archives (and finding an appropriate wine for my upcoming birthday.)

Ed Levine (Serious Eats) had a lot to say on the topic of the WSJ blog payola exposé. He made the strong argument that old media has been taking freebies for much longer than bloggers have. When asked what it was like to go from print to blog, he said that he was born for the blog medium.

The panel also discussed Gawker, Restaurant Girl, Yelpers, the speed of publishing, how blogs are changing new media, and more. I've never been on a panel, and as I said to the panelists before we began, who doesn't like to hear themselves talk? I hope I didn't come off as a total jerk. Doug says I did alright, but he's on my side, of course.

Biggest thrill for me: during introductions, Ruth Reichl announced to an entire room full of people today that this blog was the first one she started reading regularly.

!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was plotzing. I must have been as red as a beet.

Name: Marina Zurkow

Occupation: artist / animator

Borough: Brooklyn

Relationship status: would you like to have dinner?

What did you eat today?

OG yoghurt and maple almond granola
An apple turnover from the farmer’s market
Risotto with mushrooms and asparagus
Steamed spinach with butter and salt

What do you never eat?

Cow’s tongue. Otherwise, it’s open season.

Complete this sentence: In my refrigerator, you can always find:

red and white miso, grainy Dijon, cold brewed coffee, coconut water, prosecco, unsalted organic butter, and lemons.

What is your favorite kitchen item?

My good sharpened knife and a microplane.

Where do you eat out most frequently?

I cook often, and I have no regular joints, but I love Minca on 5th street and B (homemade ramen), Zabb Café (Issan Thai) on 13th street and 2nd; Diner, Wild Ginger and Oasis in Williamsburg, and would always opt for Raoul’s on Prince Street. I’d be a regular at Le Bernardin if I could…

World ends tomorrow. What would you like for your last meal?

Tomorrow- not next week:
Cedar scented sake with
Uni, shiso, hamachi, mirugai, + ika
then
A perfectly charcoal broiled hangar steak, rare inside
Wild arugula with radishes and toasted pumpkin seeds in hazelnut lemon vinaigrette
Broiled string beans in olive oil with grey salt
With a bottle of Cortes de Nuits
then
Flourless chocolate cake with vanilla hazelnut homemade ice cream
And afterwards, some Calvados, dark chocolate, and candied lemon rind.
(if the world doesn’t end tomorrow, I’ll skip dessert)

I meet La Doug at Ollie's tonight (check!) for fake Chinese food (check!) before going to watch Le Nozze di Figaro at the Met (check!) where we are subscribers (check!).

Over sesame wontons and shrimp chow fun, I tell La Doug that I'm thinking of finding a psychiatrist (check!) because I'm having this anxiety problem (check!) where, well, I won't go into details because it's TMI (check!).

The guy next to us, who's sitting just twelve inches away because the tables are crammed so close together (check!), gets up to leave. He deposits a card on the table. "Hope you don't mind, heard you were looking for a therapist. Here's my therapist's number. She's very good. Give her a call." (Check, check and check, please!)

How New York is that?

Name: Katherine Tasheff

Occupation: Web content person, wanna-be photographer

Borough: Park Slope Brooklyn

Relationship status: Singleton

What did you eat today?

Ronnybrook Mango drinkable yogurt, GoLean crunch, coffee with milk and brown sugar.
Peanut butter and jelly sandwich - Skippy Super Chunk and Phillips Farms’ Strawberry-Rhubarb spread.

Blue corn tortilla chips and fresh tomato salsa from the 5th avenue farmers market.

Buttermilk pancakes with fresh peach compote. (Yes, for dinner. When the going gets tough, the tough eat breakfast for dinner.)

What do you never eat?

Any obvious animal parts. Sweetbreads and brains scare me (even after Comfort Me with Apples, I can’t do brains). Oh, and overcooked eggplant gives me the creeps.

Complete this sentence: In my refrigerator, you can always find:

organic milk, lemons and limes, beer (usually Stella), leftover pasta of some variety, at least one unfinished drinkable yogurt. Something that’s gone fuzzy in the vegetable drawer.

What is your favorite kitchen item?

My stovetop espresso coffee pot. Although I really need a new one.

Where do you eat out most frequently?

Hmmm. I’m realizing that I’ve been getting into cooking at home more than going out (bought a grill this summer). But, my friend Lisa and I have a semi-monthly tradition of Monday Night Margaritas at El Centro; I have a soft spot for the burgers at Johnny Mack’s; You can’t exactly call it eating out, but Russo’s in my neighborhood has great fresh pasta, sauce, and prepared Italian food -- and I’m a complete fool for Italian food. (Plus, they have Ciao Bella gelato and sorbetto. Mmmmm.)

World ends tomorrow. What would you like for your last meal?

Start with aged gouda, sharp Vermont cheddar, gruyere, some salami and bresaola, olives and peppadews – serve with baguette toasts, and a nice appetizer-y wine. (I’ll ask my friend Kerry for a recommendation.) Then, for the main event -- Chicken and Noodles the way my mom makes it – it’s like a thick chicken and pasta stew with lots of cracked pepper. A giant green salad with tomatoes, roasted beets, herbs, and just a little bit of goat cheese. Warm and crusty sourdough bread. Multiple glasses of a big, friendly red wine (see Kerry again). And finally, after a little break, homemade vanilla ice cream with my very own chocolate-chip cookies for dessert . Or maybe my apple and cranberry pie.

And if the world is really ending the next day, I’d like to follow it up by watching a movie with my friends and family -- something like The Princess Bride.

Cliffs notes from the discussion last night:

Julia Child thought Alice Waters was nuts. Molly O'Neill, who lived across the street from Child in Cambridge, A.) said that Child preferred male chefs and B.) did a very funny impression of Child saying derisively that "a peach is not dessert.!" The panel then started to veer in this weird jokes-at-Alice Waters'-expense direction, though Dan Barber did try to defend her. But Alice is hardly the anti-Julia. They both love food, they both want to share that love for food. I would hope that Julia Child would have been able to turn her wrath on a more appropriate adversary, like the people who make Uncrustables.

Child was also apparently a big supporter of agribusiness -- The French Chef was sponsored by Safeway for many years, and she didn't give a hoot about where her ingredients were coming from.

Molly O'Neill says she wasn't a very good cook! She was a great teacher, and a great cheerleader for good food, but that her food was just meh.

Laura Shapiro says she preferred the glossy, perfect shows of later years over the funny "Remember, you are alone in the kitchen and nobody can see you" years. (In case your memory fails, she dropped half a potato pancake on the stove, not a chicken, or a turkey, or a turducken or whatever.)

***

I must admit that I had hoped in vain to see a French Chef segment Judith Jones talks about in The Tenth Muse (pg. 72):

"Another memorable Julia moment of truth came when I was on the set as she was preparing suckling pig. She was explaining how the ears and the tail could easily burn while the piglet was roasting in the oven, so the thing to do was to wrap a piece of foil around each. Then she paused, looking at the creature in front of her, and said that there was an even easier method for the tail. Fortunately, she pointed out, there's a natural little hole below the tail, so just tuck the tail into that and it won't burn."

Sushi is the Marsha, Marsha, Marsha of Japanese cuisine -- the prettier, sexier, more popular star of the show -- so it's always a pleasure to be reminded of the subtle glories of Japan's other culinary arts. At midtown east's Aburiya Kinnosuke, you can indulge in the magic of izakaya, small plates nosh you can down with a few bottles of Sapporo or shochu, or robata, charcoal grilled bits and bobs. I went for the first time last week and I have to tell you, every dish transports.

First of all, the Japanese know from pork. I'd take a good Japanese pork dish over raw fish 70% of the time. I could happily curl up in the small earthenware dish of fatty brown sugar soju cooked berkshire pork, paddle around in the satiny but not greasy caramelized sauce and lay my head on the velvety daikon cylinder. Grilled loin of black pepper kurobuta (black pig, aka more berkshire pork) comes with the most delicious yuzu pepper paste. Just a dab makes every savory slice of swine surprisingly invigorating and refreshing -- not a feeling you often get from pork.

The menu's full of surprises. Anago tempura is nothing like those sugar syrup drenched eel sushi bites -- it's fresh and snowy white with the most delicate dusting of crisped flour. Ladylike fish cakes are silver dollar sized patties, gently sweet and perfumed with yuzu. I'd have resented having to share them if I didn't like my dinner companions so much. Grilled sticky yam wrapped in seaweed was a totally new texture to me -- the crispness of water chestnut or jerusalem artichoke combined with the slight tackiness of flash-fried okra. I loved the drama of the houba leaf presentation -- the waitress set a black cauldron filled with burning wood charcoal on the table. A wire rack lay across the top of the cauldron, and on top of the rack sat a papery, brown prehistoric-looking leaf. Nestled on the crackly leaf were slippery slices of Eryngi mushroom, a small mountain of julienned negi (giant scallion), and sweet miso. Tasted great, but the smell! -- caramelized miso and campfire embers wafting up to the heavens. I'd like to try the beef houba leaf next time.

Don't miss the not-too-sweet black sesame pudding -- it's a square-shaped slice, the chic speckled gray of nubbly chenille. It looks dense, but the texture is somewhere between a mousse and a light cheesecake -- the intensely nutty and creamy bite gives easily against the roof of your mouth. That dish could bring out the ugly in me -- thankfully, nobody put up a fight for the last bite.

It's not a date place, it's more of a meet your friend after work place. It's quite civilized to go with a group of five or six and shoehorn yourselves into one of the shoji screened private rooms. (I did worry about putting an elbow through the paper, though.) And though we're talking about casual bar food, it's not super cheap. Be prepared to drop about $50 if you want to have fun with the menu. (Maybe more if you really get into drinking the elegant, refreshing grapefruit sours -- shochu and fizz on ice, served with half a grapefruit which you juice on a reamer and pour into the glass.) I'm not sure there's better non-sushi Japanese food anywhere else in the city. And since I'm not sure, I look forward to going back there and continuing my research.

Aburiya Kinnosuke
213 E. 45th St.
near 3rd Ave.
4, 5, 6, 7, S to Grand Central
212-867-5454

Thanks to Cutlets for standing up for the broke ass food blogger. And Regina Schrambling, as usual, nails it. For the record, I have never asked for a free meal, and I've got the credit card debt to prove it. I'm too neurotic about owing people money or favors, and it mortifies me to ask for something for nothing. I also don't want to tell people I'm writing about them because I can't promise I'm going to be nice. And I'm not so egotistical that I think I need to worry about being recognized. Besides, the best maitre d' in the world couldn't possibly keep track of all of the small fry food bloggers in New York getting their yap on. We multiply exponentially every day.

For all of my reviews, I've paid for the meal (for NYMag.com, I paid and they reimbursed me) and I've been anonymous. I even have aliases for making rezzies, and I don't put my name on my outgoing message in case the reservationist calls to confirm with my alias. That's not to say I've never taken a few freebies. I do know a few chefs by now, and If I've reaped the benefits of being friends with a cook (extra dishes, special treatment from the waiters), I'll tell you.

You, my dear audience, are small in numbers but smart. I'm sure you'd have no problem calling me out on bullshit. I'm still low profile and I'm happy to keep it that way.