Electric Griddle
Crepes are one of those great anytime foods. Sweet or savory, crepes can be served for breakfast, dinner, or dessert. They always make it look so easy in restaurants. Instead of a pan, restaurants use griddles to make perfect crepes. We found an electric griddle (pictured right) that helps home cooks make crepes that are on par with restaurant quality. It even comes with a batter spreader to evenly coat the griddle. The result are evenly cooked and sized crepes that can be filled with anything from nutella and bananas to zucchini and goat cheese. It works just as well on pancakes. This is a one-stop shop for all your breakfast needs, including bacon to accompany your pancakes or fill your crepes. $49.94,...
Read MoreBest of NYC — Lamb Crawl
Every meat has its moment and right now, it’s all about lamb. April Bloomfield’s just as famous for her lamb burger at The Breslin as she is her beef burger at The Spotted Pig. Walk into almost any New York restaurant these days and you’re bound to find a lamb dish on the menu. Newcomers like Balaboosta in Soho offer tastings of “lamb three ways” or BBQ lamb shoulder & ribs (pictured right) at Fatty Cue in Brooklyn. We’ve rounded up a few of our favorites… No. 7 Sub – Braised lamb sandwich varieties Address: 1188 Broadway Phone: (212) 532-1680 No. 7 Sub is anything but your average sandwich shop. For starters, the chef worked in one of Jean-Georges’ kitchens at Perry Street before opening his own restaurant in Fort Greene. Now, he’s reinvented the “sub” sandwich...
Read MoreSavoy's Spring Blush
By Mixologist Michael Cecconi For the rhubarb stock: 1 lb. rhubarb, cleaned and sliced into 1-inch pieces ½ lb. peeled, thinly sliced ginger Place ginger and rhubarb in a pot then cover an inch over with water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer until roughly one-quarter of the liquid is gone (around 20 minutes. Let cool, then strain out solids using a fine metal strainer. Reserve extra stock in fridge or freezer. For the drink (serves 1): 1½ ounces gin 1½ ounces rhubarb stock ¾ ounce fresh lime juice ¾ oz simple syrup 2-4 dashes Regan’s Orange Bitters Combine all ingredients in a mixing tin. Add ice, then shake and strain into an ice-filled rocks glass. Savoy Phone: (212)219-8570 Address: 70 Prince Street, at Crosby...
Read MoreReclaimed Cheese Board
Have you ever been to a house party and wanted to know what kind of cheese was on the cheese plate? It’s nice to know exactly what you’re eating and where it’s from. This cheese board (pictured right) is made of reclaimed chalkboards from a real high school in Illinois. That means you can label all your cheeses right on the board. When you’re done, just wash off the chalk and start all over again. You can throw your own cheese & wine tastings or give to a fromage-obsessed friend as a gift. The origin of this chalkboard cheese board is part of its charm. Chalkboard Cheese Board —...
Read MoreQ & A With Los Feliz's Julieta Ballesteros
It’s not often you see foie gras tacos on a menu. Julieta Ballesteros has quite an imagination, prone to taking liberties with Mexican cuisine. Her cooking style is unique to say the least — a mix of French and her native cuisine. That’s what happens when a native of Mexico moves to New York to study at the French Culinary Institute. After graduating, Julieta cooked at Mexicana Mama and also created the opening menu for Crema. She’s even worked as the consulting chef for Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. Right now, she cooking at Los Feliz, a new Mexican restaurant in the former Suba space on the Lower East Side. Her French training is evident in dishes, like the foie gras tacos with mango compote and salsa as well as slow-cooked beef cheek wrapped in a banana leaf and served...
Read MoreBest Soft Serve In The City
You never get too old for soft serve. There’s something about the sight of the ice cream truck and the snowy white swirls of vanilla soft serve on a sugar cone. Nowadays, there’s a lot more options that just Mister Softee. Soft serve’s gotten an artisanal makeover and places like Chickalicious are upping the ante with real, vanilla bean-specked version. This spring, there’s everything from from ginger and passion fruit soft serve at Bar Breton to blueberry muffin at Momofuku Milk Bar, and even white sesame at Kyotofu. Kyotofu Address: 705 9th Ave Phone: (212) 974-6011 You don’t have to suffer a soft serve-less life because you can’t eat dairy. This Asian dessert bar, located in Hell’s Kitchen, performs both savory & sweet wonders with tofu. But their finest work is soy milk soft serve (pictured right.) The...
Read MoreRouge Tomate's Spring Pea Soup
By Executive Chef Jeremy Bearman Ingredients: 1 cup Spring Onion diced 2 cloves Garlic Degermed 2 Tbsp Olive Oil 1 cup Idaho Potato Diced 3 cups Milk 1 cup of water Salt 1 cup Shelled English Peas (preferably fresh but can work with frozen) 1 cup Sugar Snap Peas 8 oz Pea Tendrils 10 leaves of mint Pepper ½ cup 0 percent Greek yogurt ½ lb Peekytoe Crab 2 Tsp Almond Oil 1 Tbsp Chopped chives 1 Tsp Lemon Juice ¼ cup Slivered Almonds Toasted ½ Tsp Lemon Zest Method of preparation:In a medium size sauce pot over a low heat, sweat the spring onions and garlic in olive oil until tender. Once tender, add the diced potato, milk & 1 cup of water. Cook on medium heat until potatoes begin to fall apart. Set aside at room temperature. ...
Read MorePasta & Parmesan Tool
Pasta is the kind of dish you can throw together last minute and still end up with something wonderful for dinner. And if you keep dried pasta and parmesan on hand, you don’t even have to go shopping before dinner. Now, all you need is the right tools. Or maybe just one. This pasta & Parmesan tool (pictured right) is 3 tools in one, making cooking pasta even easier. For starters, it measures out pasta into equal portion, and once the pasta is done cooking, the “fork” end of this gadget can be used to pick up pasta and its sauce. It even has a built-in grater for topping your pasta with fresh Parmesan or any other hard cheese you like. Really, all you need is boiling water,a box of pasta, and cheese. Dinner is served. $16.00,...
Read MoreQ & A with Patroon's Bill Peet
Bill Peet has done just about everything from washing dishes to cooking at Cafe des Artistes, and even Lutece before the legendary French eatery closed years ago. But a lot has changed on the dining landscape since the chef first began cooking in 1972. During his thirty-seven-year career, Peet opened his own restaurant in Westfield, New Jersey that managed to draw critical attention and monthly visits from my family growing up. He’s also served as the corporate chef for all twenty-six restaurants of the ARK restaurant group. These days, Peet’s the executive chef at the new Patroon 2.0, where he’s revamped the menu and introduced some terrific dishes, like dark beer-braised short ribs with polenta and glazed carrots as well as pan-roasted halibut with roasted corn chowder. He’s also reworked the rooftop bar menu, which newly offers angus prime...
Read MoreNot Your Average Delivery
One of the great advantages of living in New York is the fact that you can get anything delivered to your doorstep. Whatever cuisine you’re craving can be on the table within the hour. But dinner’s just the half of it. What New Yorkers is the delivery possibilities are endless. There’s local ice cream, farm produce, milk, and even seltzer. Milkmade Homemade Ice Cream milkmadeicecream.com The thing about ice cream cravings is you never know when one will hit. Oftentimes, it happens late at night when everything’s closed and you’re in your pajamas, so you end up eating some generic brand that’s been sitting in your freezer for way too long. Not anymore. Milkmade is homemade ice cream, hand delivered to your doorstep. Even better, membership-based company uses local ingredients in every batch of ice cream. Every month...
Read MoreAldea's Hemingway Heat Cocktail
(Serves 1) Ingredients: 2 ½ oz Clement Premiere Canne Rhum ½ oz Lime Juice ½ oz Simple Syrup ½ oz Luxardo Maraschino 2 wedges grapefruit 1 slice jalapeño 1 lime wheel Procedure: 1) Muddle grapefruit and jalapeno. Add rhum, lime juice, simple syrup and maraschino and shake vigorously. Strain into ice-filled rocks glass, garnish with lime wheel. Address: 31 W 17th Street, btwn. 5th & 6th Aves. Phone: (212)...
Read MoreLong Handle Muddle
Muddling is a marvelous way to punch up any cocktail, not to mention take advantage of spring citrus, like blood oranges. But really you can muddle anything from basil to cilantro, injecting real flavor instead of those infused liquors you buy in stores. You don’t have to go out to have a muddled cocktail. All you need is your favorite spirit and some fresh fruit of herbs to put your own spin on a mojito or Old-Fashioned. This muddler (pictured right) has a long handle, so you can muddle right in the glass, which saves time & space. The real clencher is the pestle’s base, which is shaped exactly like fruit, so it juices quicker and much more efficiently. You can whip up your own batch of meyer lemon mojitos or clementine gimlet’s or whatever else looks...
Read MoreQ & A with The Chocolate Bar's Alison Nelson
Let’s just say Alison Nelson was born to make chocolate. She grew up addicted to Hershey’s dark chocolate bars and Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, and she turned her obsession into an international business. Her dream was to make familiar & nostalgic chocolates with high quality ingredients, elevating the everyday chocolate bar to something refined. What started as a small shop in the West Village has expanded to New Jersey and even Dubai. Chocolate Bar is best known for its rich hot chocolate and spicy, chewy brownies, and her Graffiti Bars with wrappers designed by local artists. Her Jersey Shore also makes gelato, shakes, and even sno cones. Single/Married/Divorced? Married What did you want to be when you grew up? An Olympic long distance runner and high school English teacher What was your first job in food? What did...
Read MoreNew Orleans Grub on The Rise
While we didn’t make it down to New Orleans’ Jazz Fest this year, we certainly ate like we did this weekend right here in New York. NoHo (short for New Orleans) grub has suddenly come into fashion this spring, and it’s about time crawfish, gumbo and Po’ Boys get their due. The Redhead, located in the East Village, and its flawless fried chicken first caught the attention of foodies last spring. Since then, we’ve eaten oyster po boys at Choptank, Cajun fried shrimp at Cowgirl Hall of Fame, and muffalatas at Mara’s Homemade. More importantly, we’ve noticed a lot more Southern cooking on the dining scene as newcomers and neighborhood standbys alike have been making some creative Cajun and Creole dishes around town. The Redhead Address: 349 East 13th Street Phone: (212) 533-6212 The buttermilk fried chicken may...
Read MoreCheck out My Book – Try This
