AlwaysInformed: Dim Sum Deal at Jing Fong

Arthur Bovino — March 09, 2010

Clockwise from top: Jing Fong in Chinatown, Beef and Shrimp Shao Mai, food carts, Tapioca Dessert.

An escalator up a passageway lit by crystal chandeliers spills you out into a vast, gilded dining room filled with blue neon, and table after table. There is a constant chatter in Cantonese, and different smells rising in clouds of steam from carts as they pass through the crowd.

So it is at Jing Fong Restaurant on Elizabeth Street, the Chinatown dim sum hotspot with an enticing weekday special (left) that should not be forgotten. Just be wary of the small print: “All promotions are subject to change without notice.” A meal can end with haggling the bill as if you had been transported to a market in Hong Kong. Even if you think you may have paid a few extra dollars for being a gweilo (foreigner), you can still walk out feeling as if you are about to burst with dim sum without having spent a fortune. It’s especially fun for a long lunch, if you can get away from the office.

For those who haven’t been, the more adventurous rites of passage include: Chicken Feet with Black Bean Sauce, Boiled Pig Stomach, and Honeycomb Tripe. Everyone seems to find at least one of these dishes enjoyable— at Always Hungry that’s the Tripe (chicken feet involve too much work for too little payoff). It may not be as pretty as some of the versions we love around town, but it’s still good.

More Dim Sum Photographs >>

AlwaysInformed: Cuban Food (Miami, FL)

GutterGourmet — February 26, 2010

Clockwise from top: Masitas de Puerco with Maduros from Latin American Cuban Cuisine, Cuban Sandwich form Enriqueta’s Café, Cuban from El Palacio de los Jugos.

I often tell my wife that the only reason I married her was because of my mother-in-law’s lechón (Cuban suckling pig). In a scene out of Annie Hall, at my first home-cooked dinner with my future in-laws, my wife’s mother proudly presented the pork, and realizing I was Jewish, asked, “Is it okay?” I immediately asked for her daughter’s hand in marriage. With this week’s South Beach Wine & Food Festival being in Miami, it seemed like a good time to highlight some aspects of Cuban cooking.

• Mojo Almost as important as the pig (lechón or puerco asado), mojo is a sauce made with roast pig drippings, Spanish sour orange, cumin, Cuban oregano (stronger than the Italian variety), and an amount of garlic that would make even Emeril cringe.
• Cuban Sandwiches A heart attack waiting to happen pressed between bread. A variation on the traditional Cubano is called a Medianoche (“midnight”). It’s the perfect late night snack, sharing the same ingredients as a Cubano, but on a soft Challah-like egg bread.
• Combos Typical Cuban combo dishes often contain: Masitas de Puerco (pork chunks), Moros y Cristianos (black beans mixed with white rice), fried yuca (cassava), and maduros (sweet fried plaintains that taste like French toast).
• Empanadas Fried and stuffed with picadillo, a beef chili studded with olives and raisins.
• Ropa Vieja Literally “shredded rags” of torn flank steak.
• Bistec Empanizado A thin, breaded fried steak that would make any Texas chicken fried steak jealous.
• Dessert The sweeter the better. There’s flan, of course, which is creamier and sweeter than any crème caramel, and dulce de leche— the love child of milk and sugar. Any meal should be finished with a shot of Cuban coffee— it has been known to revive the dead.

For good Cuban food in Miami I recommend:

• Enriqueta’s Sandwich Shop (186 Northeast 29th St)
• El Palacio de los Jugos (5721 West Flagler St)
• Latin American Cuban Cuisine Bayside (401 Biscayne Blvd)
• Latin Cafe 2000 (2501 Biscayne Blvd)

AlwaysInformed: Valentine Cookie Imports

February 10, 2010

Alexandra’s Cookie Dreams’ Limited-edition Valentine’s Day cookie flavor: “Love At First Bite.”

If you have exhausted the sweet options that New York has to offer, here is a serious Valentine’s Day power move for the cookie lovers out there. The Love at First Bite, Valentine’s Day Cookies from Alexandra’s Cookie Dreams. ACD is located in Austin, TX, but its founder, Alexandra Bruskoff, was until fairly recently a local New York schoolteacher.

ACD’s signature cookie is the “New York Cowgirl,” fudgy Ghirardelli chocolate dough laced with chili powder and pretzel bits. Other intriguing flavors include “The All-Nighter”* (chocolate, espresso, cayenne, and walnuts), and “Toffee Doodle Dream” (vanilla with toffee and semi-sweet chocolate). You can try three or four flavors at once by ordering the signature collection (two dozen/$74.00).

But it’s Love at First Bite that you’ll want to order for your honey. An order of six chocolate cookies that are spotted with dried cherries, blueberries and cranberries, white chocolate chunks, topped with kosher salt and sugar.

Order now so that they can arrive in time for the big day

AlwaysInformed: The Butter Burger

GutterGourmet — January 25, 2010

Lexington Candy Shop’s Butter Burger goes great with one of their Chocolate Malteds.

The Lexington Candy Shop on the corner of 83rd and Lexington Avenue proudly announces its most well-known specialties beneath its windows: “Malteds, Sundaes and Fountain Service. But it’s most interesting menu item, the Lexington Butter Burger, is curiously less heralded.

The windows contain an amazing collection of international and limited edition Coca-Cola bottles, all full. They still mix the Coke using syrup and soda water in iconic glasses as done in 1925 when the restaurant was established. The soda “jerks” know what they’re doing. They’re equally adept at mixing a mean egg cream, and what is perhaps the City’s best chocolate malted (at $8 it may be the planet’s most expensive). But you’re here for the Butter Burger.

Click here to read about the Butter Burger at the Lexington Candy Shop >>

AlwaysInformed: Create Dunkin’s Next Donut Contest 2010

January 22, 2010

2009 Create Your Own Donut Contest winner: Toffee For Your Coffee Donut.

It’s time to make the donuts again. On February 8th, Dunkin’ Donuts relaunches their Create Dunkin’s Next Donut Contest. The contest asks people to come up with their ultimate, dream donut. The winner gets to take home $12,000 and have their confection sold in participating stores.

It will be interesting to see what dethrones last year’s winner, Toffee For Yor Coffee. In the meantime you can kill a few minutes at work making practice creations on the company’s website.

AlwaysInformed: Ultimate Coconut Cake

Maryse Chevrière — January 15, 2010

Peninsula Grill’s Ultimate Coconut Cake.

We recently caught a rerun of the Coconut Cake episode of Throwndown with Bobby Flay, in which he takes on the signature dessert of Chef Robert Carter at the Peninsula Grill in Charleston, South Carolina. Flay won the battle, but Carter’s looked so good that we decided to order a cake online to taste it for ourselves.

Within 24 hours, a box containing the securely packaged, 12-pound cake arrived. The 6-layer cake is as impressive in stature as it is in heft. The exterior comes completely covered in toasted coconut shavings whose sweet scent completely fills the room. A single slice looks like a coconut version of Strip House’s famous chocolate cake. Thin sheets of moist pound cake are separated by layers of smooth, rich, coconut-infused, cream cheese icing. It has just the right balance of sweetness and you get coconut in every bite. Make sure to follow the instructions on the packaging to slice while cold and serve room temperature, it only improves the experience.

AlwaysInformed: Yonah Schimmel’s Cheese Bagel

GutterGourmet — January 13, 2010

The Cheese Bagel from Yonah Schimmel’s.

There’s a Howard Johnson Express to the right of Yonah Schimmel’s Knishes, and Landmark Sunshine Cinema to the left, but the knishery seems to have made few concessions to the 20th, much less the 21st centuries. One, their use of the microwave, hasn’t been particularly kind to the classic potato knish (though their Kasha Knish is still best in class), it effects the delicate knish skin, makes the mound of potato filling mealy, and scorches the roof of your mouth. But there is an item at Yonah Schimmel’s that may be its redemption: the Cheese Bagel.

The Cheese Bagel ($4.00), which does not appear on the menu board above the counter, is a unique animal. There’s that old parable from India about the three blind men who examine different parts of an elephant without knowing what they’re touching, you know, the one where they violently disagree about what the animal is. Similarly, if three blind(folded) people were to order Yonah Schimmel’s Cheese Bagel and examine it, here is what they’d say:

“It’s not a bagel. It’s twisted like a pretzel”
“It’s soft and breaks easily. It’s a knish”
“It’s too thin to be a bagel or a knish, and the skin is blistered like a bialy.”

Upon tasting the soft sweet farmer’s cheese filling, any of them would have to declare, “you’re wrong, it’s a blintz.” In the end, they’d all have to come to the same conclusion: “Delicious.”

AlwaysInformed: Cinderella Wine

Maryse Chevrière — January 07, 2010

Cinderellawine.com’s featured wine is discounted until it sells out, then it ‘turns into a pumpkin.’

The holidays may be over, but the shopping and imbibing doesn’t have to end. The recently launched site, cinderellawine.com can prolong the fun. Cinderella Wine does for oenophiles what Gilt Groupe did for shopaholics. The concept is familiar: a great product, a hell of a discount, one night only.

If you haven’t tried Cinderella Wine yet, it works like this: every night at 9:00pm a bottle of wine is featured at an enviably good price. Those who have scored a reservation at Ko should be good at this game, it requires the same skill of superior index finger reflexes. When the bottle sells out —poof— the killer deal that could have been yours magically turns into a pumpkin (icon).

The site, which is an addition to Gary Vaynerchuk’s expanding Wine Library brand, takes a Geico approach to showing you just how much money you’re saving: displaying the Suggested Retail Price, the Wine Library Sale Price, and the Best Price on the Web to compare against their marked down tag. In addition to having a running list of specs and reviews of the wine du soir, there’s the bonus feature of encouraging members to comment on the bottle in a very Facebook / Twitter kind of way.

If your fairy godmother hasn’t brought you Prince Charming yet, consider this a fair substitute.

AlwaysInformed: Local Flours and Beans

Michelle Kiefer — January 07, 2010

Assorted Beans from Cayuga Pure Organics.

Seeing local New York grains and beans from Cayuga Pure Organics at the Union Square and Grand Army Plaza greenmarkets (as noted yesterday in The Times) will inspire locavores to rejoice. While local flours and beans haven’t been completely absent from the New York scene, they’re still not found de rigueur. Cayuga’s grains and beans mean one less thing that must be bought at the supermarket.

Even if you’re not a loca-nut this is still something to be happy about— it is winter after all, what better time to warm your belly with Cayuga’s cracked wheat cereal (a better version of cream of wheat) or to make chili with fresh, quick-cooking beans? Their spelt and half-wheat flours are great for baking and they give piecrusts and muffins a heartier, richer flavor. Also expected at the markets in the near future is artisan bread made from Cayuga’s locally milled flour, which their New York City sales manager, Tycho Dan described as being so good, “It’s like it’s got drugs in it or something.”

Click Here For An Interview With a Cayuga Vendor About Local Flour and Beans >>

AlwaysInformed: Wechsler’s Leberkäse

GutterGourmet and Arthur Bovino — January 06, 2010

Wechsler’s Leberkäse.

Want exciting sausages in the East Village? Try Wechsler’s on 1st Ave and 7th. Their signature dish is the well-documented currywurst. Even if you don’t love the taste (what’s wrong with you?) currywurst deserves your respect. After all, how many dishes have museums? But there’s another cultural food landmark from Germany at Wechsler’s that hasn’t gotten much attention: Leberkäse.

Click Here for Beautiful Pictures of Wechsler's Currywurst >>

First Look: 10 Downing’s New Lunch Menu

Samantha Zalaznick — December 17, 2009

The 10 Downing Burger with Cheddar Cheese, Shoestring Fries and Homemade Pickles.

As reported, 10 Downing started lunch this week. If you’re curious about what they’re doing now that Jason Neroni’s replacement, Jonnatan Leiva has taken over, here’s the menu and pictures from a meal.

We also hear that a private dining room and lounge are set to open in the next few months and that the restaurant (view) has also brought on pastry chef, Shuna Lydon.

Click Here to view the menu and view pictures >>

AlwaysInformed: Shuck Regulations!

GutterGourmet — December 16, 2009

Blue Point Oysters from Westport Aquaculture. Bottom right, Capt. Jeff Northrop.

The best thing to happen to the Union Square Greenmarket in years is already under fire.

Westport Aquaculture (view), which recently arrived at the market on Wednesdays, offers Connecticut Blue Point oysters and a variety of clams including Littlenecks and Cherrystones. The best part was that they’d revived one of New York City’s grandest culinary traditions: shucking ‘em on the spot. As Mark Kurlansky noted in his book, New York City was “The Big Oyster” before it was “The Big Apple.”

Now we’ve heard that the Greenmarket elders have stopped the shucking in order to debate whether shellfish constitutes “prepared food” in violation of some Greenmarket policy. Yeah they’re prepared— by Mother Nature or Poseidon. Aw shucks, guys! Gimme my oysters!

AlwaysInformed: Despaña’s Bocadillos

Arthur Bovino — December 15, 2009

Assorted bocadillos from Despaña.

As The Times noted last week, Despaña, Broome Street’s Spanish food retailer, recently opened a tapas café with three communal tables at the rear of the store (Grub Street reported plans to serve wine and beer too). This should serve as a reminder that they make some of the city’s best bocadillos.

If you haven’t visited Despaña (view) in a while, there are fifteen sandwiches. There’s something about the bread that recalls true European sandwiches. They’re tough and chewy in a good way— something you really have to just bite into and pull at. Savory selections range from the Vegetariano ($8.00) to the Iberico Ham ($25.00) with toppings that include bonito, boquerones, and lomo embuchado.

While they’re all very good, some of the best include: Traditional Chorizo, Chorizo Picante, the “Despaña,” and Iberico Ham. Not to be forgotten, especially by sweet sandwich lovers, is the warm, pressed “Nocilla,” a melted Spanish chocolate hazelnut spread ($5.00).

Click Here for Bocadillo Pictures and Recommendations >>

AlwaysInformed: Octopus Lives in a Coconut Under the Sea

December 15, 2009

Word comes from Australia today that scientists have documented a veined octopus in Indonesia that collects coconut shells and carrying them across the ocean floor to form a makeshift hideaway. It is the first documented proof of an invertebrate animal using tools. Spongebob lives in a pineapple under the sea, why can’t an octopus live in a coconut?

The discovery doesn’t exactly have us craving coconut-crusted calamari, but it inspired thought about restaurants that serve great octopus dishes. Click here to see them, or just type “octopus” into AlwaysHungryNY.com’s Very Advanced Search.

AlwaysInformed: A Spoonful of Sugar

Samantha Zalaznick — December 11, 2009

Two signature cocktails at Madam Geneva. Left, cranberry orange. Right, apple cinnamon.

In case you’ve forgotten about them, the signature cocktails at Madam Geneva (site), the lounge adjacent to Double Crown, are worth revisiting for the most recent seasonal selection. The drinks take a note from Mary Poppins’ maxim: A Spoonful of Sugar Makes The Medicine Go Down.

Madam’s Preserves and Jams are served with crushed ice and a choice of gin or vodka, with a spoonful of jam—cranberry orange, apple cinnamon, or pumpkin nutmeg. Indeed, sugar does do the trick. Once you mix in the jam you can barely taste any alcohol, creating a delicious and deceivingly potent treat. The pumpkin nutmeg is the star of the fall selection.