Category: You Are What You Eat

Name: JT McKay

Occupation: Referee/Babysitter, China Grill Management

Borough: Brooklyn

What did you eat today?   

A hard-boiled organic egg with sea salt (breakfast every M-F), a chicken gyro and half a gingerbread cookie (I baked) with homemade cream cheese frosting.

What do you never eat?  

Until a month ago, cauliflower, but apparently I love it, now I never eat turnips.

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

Organic milk, eggs & butter (salted and unsalted), romano cheese (for grating), cornichons, several good mustards, blue cheese & iced coffee. I will always have ICE (in freezer).

What is your favorite kitchen item?

Toss-up between my battery operated coffee frother & my vintage pyrex nesting bowls.

Where do you eat out most frequently?

Mary’s Fish Camp, DuMont, Diner, Stanton Social, Odeon

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

Chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes with country cream gravy and collard greens.
[Double yum! --Ed.]

Name: Hee Jin Kang

Occupation: Photographer

Borough: Brooklyn

What did you eat today?

Christmas day...

Breakfast:
-Bewley's Explore Kenyan coffee
-wild Irish Atlantic salmon
-Wiltshire farm free-range scrambled eggs
-Irish wheaten loaf
-Kingdom County butter
-Billecart-Salmon Brut Rose pink champagne

Pre-dinner snack:
-Garvey's Manzanilla Sanlucar de Barrameda sherry
-Waitrose country pate on crackers
-Noires a la grecque olives

Dinner:
-rib of beef on the bone (Hereford-Abedeen Angus cross) bought from Roses Butcher, Devizes, Wiltshire
-red rooster potatoes
-Irish cabbage and carrots
-breaded mussels from Kerry Fish
-Valencia scallops
-red wine - Don Ramon Perez Juan Campo de Borja-imported by Point Bar at Rennard's Point
-Christmas pudding made by landlord's wife at George and Dragon, Rowde, Wiltshire
-Cote de Rhone from Gidden's - Chateau La Renjardiere

Dessert:
-brandy sauce with Courvoisier
-HB ice cream
-Monbazillac, imported by Wadworth...
-Ashmore Cheddar, Dorset
-Cashel Blue cheese
-Camembert
-crackers
-belgian truffles, Duc d'O
-lychees

[Wow.  I'm coming over for Christmas next year. --Ed.]

What do you never eat?
Tripe.
Marmite.
Liver.

[I do love me some Marmite on buttered toast with a cup of PG Tips, like once a year.  --Ed.]

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

Kimchee.
Soymilk.

What is your favorite kitchen item?

my Wagenfeld teapot

Where do you eat out most frequently?

DuMont, Marlow & Sons, Max's, Cheers.

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

A Korean dinner: rice, bulgogi and kalbi (marinated beef), kimchee, hot spicy jigae (stew), seaweed sheets, marinated spinach and beansprouts, tofu, and a glass of Chateau d'Yquem for dessert.

Scope out Hee Jin's genius at her website.

Name: Mark Schwartz

Occupation: Writer & Editor

Borough: Brooklyn

What did you eat today?

Yesterday was better. Asopao de pollo with a side of tostones, Spanish coffee, the best fake-meat Chinese and spicy eggplant (Vegetarian Palate, on Flatbush), a glass of Cotes du Ventoux.

What do you never eat?

Hard-boiled eggs. [Not even deviled? --Ed.]

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

Capers, seltzer, vermouth, half ‘n’ half, Goya salsa taquera, five or six parmagiana rinds, and of course, fish sauce.

What is your favorite kitchen item?

My Bialetti Brikka stove-top espresso maker, with the aerator that actually simulates crema.

Where do you eat out most frequently?

Grand Sichaun (9th Ave.), Havana Chelsea, Tavern on Dean, Tempo.  [Have you ever read the Grand Sichuan guy's Who Moved My Cheese screed under the China Tour tab?  Bizarre. -- Ed.]

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

Jerk lamb (sorry, God) from The Islands on Washington Ave., with rice and peas and a side of mac and cheese because they will be out of roti. If there’s any room left, I’d try to get Tempo’s black pepper panna cotta with figs and rosemary. Espresso to finish. And the case of Garnacha that we just bought.

Name: David Farley

Occupation: Travel writer

Borough: Manhattan

What did you eat today?

Breakfast: Two cups of coffee—I rarely eat anything till lunch.
Lunch: I took leftover Thanksgiving ingredients—yams, garlic mashed potatoes, stuffing, turkey, cranberry sauce, and gravy—that I’d frozen and then combined it with jalapenos, salsa, and black beans for an awesome Thanksgiving burrito. My family thinks I’m insane when I do this at Thanksgiving.
Dinner: I made an amatriciana sauce that was actually from one of Mario Batali’s cookbooks. For me it’s much more agreeable to eat his food at home since I’ve always found his restaurants overrated.

What do you never eat?

There’s nothing I wouldn’t try at least once—I’d probably eat a dog’s balls if it were prepared in the French manner. Although after living in Rome, I still have a hard time stomaching sloppy old school Italian-American cuisine.

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

That spicy, red Vietnamese chili sauce that has a rooster on the plastic container. Jalapenos. Peanut sauce. Green salsa. Czech beer.

What is your favorite kitchen item?

My dog. I never have to clean my kitchen floor.


Where do you eat out most frequently?

Westville, Shake Shack, Ivo & Lulu, Tartine.

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

I’d eat about 20 burritos from Taco Bell. I never eat fast food, but if I knew I was going to die the following day the ethical and health reasons for avoiding a multi-national fast food chain would no longer matter.  [Death by frijoles; totally disgusting, but I can respect that.  --Ed.]

Read Farley's travel tales over at his place.

A special bonus for you: Italian blogger Pepe Rosso's readers respond with their own desired end-of-days meals. 

"Sa cordula" preparata da mia mamma con le micche che fa un mio amico bevendo...il cannonau di Loi
VOGLIO MORIRE PIENO DI ROBA ITALIANISSIMA!!!!

I don't know what it means, but I want someone to whisper it into my ear. PURRRR.

I've also decided that I'd like to tack on 77 bottles of sparkling wines of various prices, grades, and regions to my last meal so I can ring in the end in style.

Name: David Byrne

Occupation: Artist/composer?

Borough: Manhattan

What did you eat today?

For breakfast: Pad Thai noodles and pumpkin pie and iced coffee.

What do you never eat?

Pig feet

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

Grapefruit, white wine, cheese, leftovers, tortillas, ice cream, frozen pizza, hummus.

What is your favorite kitchen item?

Microwave

Where do you eat out most frequently?

In my neighborhood (Hell’s Kitchen)

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

Fresh fish, grilled w/ lemon and olive oil, spinach, brussels sprouts, white wine.

Read David Byrne's journal here.

Name: Shelley Burgon

Occupation: Musician/harp and other things with strings

Borough: Brooklyn

What did you eat today?

On Tues 11/22: First I drank some water, then for breakfast I made myself two slices Niman Ranch bacon, two organic eggs (cooked in the bacon fat...yum) and one slice of country french bread with a cup of
organic coffee.

For lunch I ate out and had tom kha soup and spring rolls, for a snack I had some stinky French cheese from Blue Apron and an almondine croissant and water. 

For dinner I made myself an all-American veggie burger with cheese, onion, lettuce, ketchup and mustard with a side of tater tots and a Corona with lime.

What do you never eat?

Chicken (dirty bird sticks to your teeth)

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

Food, new old good and a box of baking soda

What is your favorite kitchen item?

salt and pepper grinder, toaster oven

Where do you eat out most frequently?

Taro Sushi or pizza

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

Wow...sex and dessert

Find out more about Shelley and her harp hotttness here.

Name: Mark Bello

Occupation: Part time cheesemonger, full time fingers in other pots

Borough: Manhattan

What did you eat today?

Breakfast: coffee and a steamed bun with pork/chive filling
(something I ate every day for breakfast when I lived in Taiwan- I heart NY!)
Lunch: a burger at Island Burgers & Shakes (766 9th Ave between 50th and 51st). Part of a research mission. I'm a member of a club that is committed to eat at 100 NYC burger establishments over the course of 2 years. This is in response to a Time Out New York story on the 100 Best Burgers in NYC. 100 "Best" burgers?!? We're going to set the record straight!
Dinner: As soon as I finish typing this up, the plan is to cook up a batch of bucatini and toss it with some Fulvi pecorino romano, nice green Tuscan olive oil and a healthy dose of cracked pepper (some of my favorite kitchen items listed below will come into play) and a side of spinach with garlic and lemon juice.

What do you never eat?

Subway. Their meat tastes like Band-Aids® smell.

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

half and half, good butter, lots of condiments

What is your favorite kitchen item?

My Le Creuset 7 quart French Oven, my Microplanes, and a spatula I've had since junior high

Where do you eat out most frequently?

-Bellavitae, on Minetta just west of 6th. My favorite Italian
restaurant in the US
-Totonno's, Coney Island location
-Gray's Papaya, 8th St. & 6th Ave.
-Number One Dumpling, on Eldridge just south of Broome
-Barney Greengrass, Amsterdam at 86th

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

At my fantasy food court:
cocktails by:
-The Matchbox, Chicago
wines by:
-Casa del Vino, Florence
then a supernatural appetite for:
-Hot Doug's, Chicago (with the duck fat fryer fired up)
-Avec, Chicago
-Sun Wah, Chicago
-Carniceria Uruapan, Chicago
-Ristorante Buca dell'orafo, Florence
-Lee and Rick's Oyster Bar, Orlando
-a Thai joint selected by Erik M. wherein he has negotiated the menu
-Coerper's Steakhouse, Milwaukee
-my mom's meatballs, matzo balls and brisket
-and all the NYC spots listed above
dessert:
-Murray's Cheese
-German Kinder Eggs (the chocolate is still pretty blah but they
contain the best toys) with whipped cream and fresh raspberries

Visit Mark at Murray's Cheese Shop on Bleecker and Cornelia to find out what's rocking his palette at the moment.

Name: Rebecca Federman       

Occupation: Librarian

Borough: Brooklyn

What did you eat today?

Coffee, toast with butter and marmalade and a pear. 
Spinach Pie, hummus and pita, fried cauliflower
Sushi from Taro Sushi on Dean Street - yum.

What do you never eat?

Brains

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

Butter, marmalade (see breakfast), mustards, chili sauce.

What is your favorite kitchen item?

My lemon reamer and my little egg timer

Where do you eat out most frequently?

All lunch places in Midtown: 'wichcraft kiosks in Bryant Park; Cafe Zaiya on 41st Street, Pret a Manger.

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

Chicken soup with oats
Steamed Juicy Pork Buns
Bucatini all'amatriciana from Lupa
Grilled Swiss with Tomato on Rye with fries
Lady M Crepe Cake with Friendly's "whipped topping" on the side.

Name: Roger Williams

Occupation: Corporate Whore/Web Consultant

Borough: Manhattan

What did you eat today?

Breakfast: Coffee
Lunch: Homemade Chicken Salad Sandwich - chicken salad has sour pickles, candied pecans, and pears all smoothed out with some sour cream, mayo, and dijon. [Fascinating.  That is beyond my taste comprehension.  I am a little grossed out, a little intrigued. -- Ed.]
Afternoon: Went to a wine tasting - the wines of Portugal - got pretty tipsy, y'all - I had some cheese there.
Dinner: At Lavagna, I had their rigatoni with ground sausage and peas in a tomato cream sauce.  I eaten at Lavagna for 5 years, this is easily their best dish.

What do you never eat?

Lima beans, I mean, what is the point?  It's mushy crap, and it doesn't go with anything.

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

Cheese, butter, and wine

What is your favorite kitchen item?

Cutting board



Where do you eat out most frequently?

I can't name one place, but if I had to pick the most frequented I would say Casimir (French), Alias (comfort and new American), Max (Italian), and Ginger (sushi)

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

1st Course:
Oysters
with a nice white wine

2nd Course:
Cobb Salad
Cheese Plate - all stinky and sharp
with a nice rose

Main Course
NY Strip Steak - rare
Risotto
Creamed Spinach
Big fluffy roll
with a nice Bourdeaux

Dessert
Key Lime Pie with Whipped Cream
with a nice port

Finishing it all off with as much Single Malt Scotch I can drink.