AlwaysTraveling: Pink’s Hot Dogs (Los Angeles, CA)
Arthur Bovino — June 01, 2010
Clockwise from top: a Bacon Chili Cheese Dog at Pink’s, corner of Melrose and La Brea in Los Angeles.
Restaurant: Pink’s Hot Dogs
Address: 709 North La Brea Ave., LA, CA 90038
Hours: Sun-Thur, 9:30am-2am; Fri-Sat, 9:30am-3:00am.
Contact: (323) 931-4223
Grade: A-
Recommended Dishes: You can’t really lose, whether you start basic (Chili Cheese Dog) or go big (Three Dog Night).
Is there anything about Pink’s that hasn’t been said? Hard to imagine. After all, there’s a perpetual line, the walls are covered with autographed photos of celebrities, and it has been serving customers since Paul Pink started his pushcart in 1939. It has been lauded by no less than Johnny Apple and Ruth Reichl. Describing Pink’s is like explaining a bagel to a New Yorker— you don’t do it. But, Pink’s is a pilgrimage, so this is more celebration than revelation.
Slice by Slice: New York Pizza Suprema
GutterGourmet — May 17, 2010
The Bacon Slice at New York Pizza Suprema in Midtown, and a Bacon Slice upskirt.
Any discerning pizza-lover who has missed a train at Penn knows the deal: Rosa’s will do in a pinch. But if you hurry, the place to grab a slice is New York Pizza Suprema, catty–corner on 8th Avenue where it has been since 1964. Suprema is a bastion of goodness in the pizza wasteland that is Midtown. What’s not often noted is that it can be discussed as a destination too. It’s no stretch to mention it in a conversation about members of New York’s pantheon of Metropolitan slicerias. We’re talking Joe’s, and Patsy’s of Harlem. As Suprema’s website says, “This pizzeria was here before Madison Square Garden.” But it had been a while since we’d visited so it was time for a state of the slice.
Featured Brunch: Clover Club
Arthur Bovino — May 14, 2010
Clover Club’s Brunch Bacon Tasting: Pepper Bacon, Duck Bacon, and Maple Bacon.
A recent newsletter from Clover Club that announced forthcoming news about a lunch menu was a reminder that this spot isn’t just for Cobbles, Swizzles, Bracers, Punches, Royales, and Bucks. It’s also great for brunch. Light pours through floor-to-ceiling windows, space for ten-tops, and more cocktails than needed to replace every forgettable brunch mimosa you’ve ever had. Liquid Brunch, hell-o.
From left: Sloe and Low Cobbler, Rhubarb Spritz Royale, and Barman’s Bloody.
Booze. Five Bloody Mary’s, four Royales, three Swizzles, and more. Where to begin? Remember the Maine isn’t a bad place to start. The eponymous Clover Club? Too many choices!
Featured Dessert: Shake Shack’s New Flavors
Maryse Chevrière — April 06, 2010
Shack-uccino is the Monday special on Shake Shack’s custard calendar.
It may have still been a bit chilly out when the first Mister Softee jingle of the year was heard a little less than a month ago, but by now you should know: it’s officially ice cream weather.
A new month means new flavors on the Shake Shack custard calendar. With the promise of gorgeous weather, it seems as though the Shack has stepped up its game— Fluffernutter, Milk & Honey, and Gianduja all sound worthy of a special trip through the B-Line. Monday’s Shack-uccino was particularly good. Thick, creamy, with cinnamony coffee flavor. Of course, the real flavor of interest this April is the Saturday special, Pancakes and Bacon. Finally, the Shack does brunch!
On a related note, if you just can’t wait until this Saturday to sate your bacon-ice cream combo fix, word on the street is that after a one-day-only cameo on April 1st, the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck is making its official return for the season today (along with their Caramelized Bacon Ice Cream Sandwich, right ). Here’s where they will be. That said, if you are a true fan of creative ice cream flavors there a number of other great places to check out (you know, because sometimes on really nice days even the Shake Shack’s B-Line gets mobbed).
AlwaysInformed: Bacon Donuts Now at Wildwood BBQ
Maryse Chevrière — March 30, 2010
Wildwood BBQ’s new Glazed Cinnamon Donuts topped with Candied Bacon.
At last Saturday’s Grillin’ on the Bay cook-off, Wildwood Barbecue’s chef “Big Lou” Elrose lamented that dessert entries weren’t permitted in the “chef’s choice” category. Wait— barbecue for dessert?
Well, it’s not exactly barbecue, but the chef revealed that he does get to exercise his sweet tooth back at Wildwood, with a new addition to the restaurant’s dessert menu: Cinnamon Donuts topped with Candied Bacon. The dish debuted last Friday and features two airy, cinnamon-rich cake donuts, that are good (though not Doughnut Plant good).
Donuts arrive top-coated in a frosting-like glaze that is sprinkled with chewy, salty-sweet bacon bits. If you’re sharing, be prepared to fight for these bites. Of course, the real move is to dunk a bacon-studded nub in the excellent accompanying homemade coffee ice cream.
AlwaysTraveling: Rodeo Food (Houston, TX)
Arthur Bovino and Maryse Chevrière — March 24, 2010
Clockwise from top: Chicken Fried Bacon from Yoakum Packing Company, a woman enjoys a sausage and corndog on a stick, entering the rodeo at Reliant Stadium.
Pig races, donkey-reining, supreme champion heifer drives, and “xtreme bulls.” That’s just one day on the program at Houston’s 2010 Rodeo and Livestock Show. And all that action really revs up some Texas-sized appetites— not that anyone there needed excuses. Having heard tell of some of the food on that was on the offer in past years, a trip to H-Town for rodeo food this year was imperative. The chicken-fry-everything-and-put-it-on-a-stick approach did not disappoint.
Cowboys left their F-1-somethings in the parking lots in favor of public transportation to Reliant Stadium where the rodeo was held all this month. You never thought you’d see so many Stetsons, big buckles, and boots riding light rail. Then, just inside the gates, past several “Welcome, y’all’s,” was the smell of livestock and BBQ. Billowing clouds of steam were thrown off by skillets bigger than wagon wheels. People walked around with juicy Roasted Turkey Legs almost as long as their forearms. Beef jerky, turkey jerky, pork tenderloin, burritos, nachos, French fries, potato chips, and funnel cake.
There was all the carnival fare you could imagine (and more), and much of the food on sticks. Pizza, sausage, meatballs, corndogs, and alligator. Of course there was fried food: catfish, Oreos, Nutter Butters, Twinkies, and oatmeal cream pies. And it wouldn’t have been Texas without chicken fried stuff, like meatballs, and, yes, bacon. Check out our five favorites below, and the full slideshow.
Photographs of food at Houston Rodeo 2010 >>
AlwaysPartying: Cures for St. Paddy’s Day Hangover
Arthur Bovino — March 18, 2010
ENGOV is an over-the-counter hangover cure that you may have wanted to get ahead of time.
Is it normal that your head is still spinning when you close your eyes? Probably not. If after last night’s revelry, you actually feel like eating today, there are solutions for getting over your St. Paddy’s Day hangover. The first one you might have needed to plan out a bit, it involves a lesser known, over-the-counter hangover pill that can be snagged in at least one spot in Queens.
Nobody here is a doctor, but ENGOV has been known to clear the cobwebs if not quite get you from 0 to 60. It’s a Brazilian thing. A Brazilian hangover cure for an Irish-themed holiday? Why not— given that Brazilians know how to party, they should know how to lessen the pain. Down there, when people know they’re going to get ripped, they stop into a local farmácia to buy packets of these pills whose ingredients (aluminum hydroxide, caffeine, acetylsalicylic, and pyrilamine maleate) can be found in antacids, aspirin, and antihistamines. You’re meant to take one before your first drink and another after the last. But, you can also just take two the next day.
It may just be a placebo, but for future reference, you can find ENGOV at Rio Bonito in Astoria (32-15 36th Ave), the Brazilian Market that was the site of New York’s first pizza cone sightings before K! Pizzacone came to town. If you’re not into pill-popping, there are some food cures…
AlwaysPartying: National Pig Day
Maryse Chevrière — March 01, 2010
Whole Roast Pig from the Second Annual Pig Roast and Dance Party.
What better way to kickoff a month than to celebrate the almighty pig? Today, March 1st is National Pig Day, and in its honor we have compiled pictures of some of our favorite dishes celebrating this glorious animal in all of its delicious forms. Feast your eyes of the Pig-apalooza.
Best of 2009: AlwaysHungry’s Top Stories
Arthur Bovino — December 17, 2009
Clockwise from top left, AlwaysHungry’s most popular posts in 2009.
From bacon to doubles, Anne Burrell to Kenny Shopsin, AlwaysHungry has been all over your New York City food radar. So while you’ve probably already seen these awesome articles, in the spirit of the end of the year and all that is the December-holy-round-up (just in case you’ve had too many eggnogs and have forgotten), we present the top ten most popular posts for AlwaysHungry’s inaugural year.
Click Here for the Top Ten Most Popular Posts on AlwaysHungryNY.com during 2009 >>
AlwaysInformed: Cabrito’s Border Dogs
The Gluttoness — October 23, 2009
From top left, clockwise, Cabrito’s Border Dogs: Sonora Dog, Danger Dog and Lucha Libre Dog.
Cabrito (view) really knows how to use the flat-screen TVs they recently installed. No NY1 on these bad boys— they’re reserved for specialty events like Mexican Lucha Libre, the World Cup, and for now, football. Given Chef David Schuttenberg’s new promotional menu for his football parties, the combination of food and flat-screens may make this your new favorite Sunday hangout, especially if you enjoy eating while watching the game, but are tired of snacking on junk while surrounded by drunken frat boys at sports bars. Schuttenberg’s line of “Border Dogs” coincides with the ongoing hot dog craze, but it was his time in Tucson, Arizona (and a recent NPR article, The Sonoran Hotdog Crosses The Border), which inspired him to recreate the “Mexicanized” Sonora-style dogs.
Schuttenberg balances the Cabrito/Fatty profile (read: spicy/funky) with the regional flavors of Mexico. As per Sonoran custom, the dogs are wrapped in bacon. At Cabrito, Nathan’s (“because they’re New York”) are wrapped in bacon, Fatty ‘Cue’s smoked coriander bacon. Then they’re deep-fried. Rather than the dense, traditional bolio, Schuttenberg uses Martin’s Long Potato Rolls, which he coats in lardo then griddles. Each of the three border dogs ($8.00/each) are distinct. For him, the “Sonora Dog” represents home, the “Danger Dog” is about being a badass, and “Lucha Libre” is pure, artery-clogging gluttony.
FirstLook: MARK Burger
The Hungry Goat — October 20, 2009
MARK Burger’s Beef Slider, $2.00.
With everyone obsessing over Bill’s Bar & Burger there is a sleeper that is going under the radar that may just be serving the best sliders in New York. It was hard to imagine that something could have been missing from the already cramped restaurant row that is St. Mark’s Place. But with last week’s opening of MARK Burger (view), it became alarmingly clear that what it was missing—craving, even—was a good, cheap burger (or in this case slider) joint.
AlwaysNYCWFF: Thrillist’s Bacon & The Blues
Arthur Bovino — October 09, 2009
Bacon-Wrapped Quail Dog with Smoked Mustard Sauce by Braeburn. Tyler Florence. The Crooners.
Bacon. Man, Thrillist doesn’t mess around. Their Bacon & The Blues event in The High Line Room at The Standard for the New York City Wine & Food Festival (site) featured bacon with oysters, bacon with potatoes, candied bacon, hazelnut crusted bacon, bacon donuts and wait for it, wait for it, chocolate-dipped bacon.
Tyler Florence’s brief introduction let everyone get down to the matter at hand, drinking Canadian Club Whiskey with soda, listening to The Crooners play their rendition of “Johnny B. Goode,” and eating lots and lots of bacon and bacon-laced dishes provided by chefs from six restaurants.
With all the different textures and takes on such an epic ingredient, it was hard to play favorites. We particularly enjoyed Chef Brian Murphy’s use of bacon with oysters because he fried them instead of going with what might have first come to mind, bacon-wrapped oysters. The maple-glazed sour cream donuts also deserved our love. But it’s hard not to give B.R. Guest’s executive pastry chef, Elizabeth Katz the most props for her skewered, baked, brown sugar-sprinkled, chocolate-dipped bacon. Not only did they taste great, but they were portable, easy to eat and embodied an over-the-top expression of all that we love about bacon.
Other great dishes by Christopher Lee, Brian Bistrong, Jacqueline Lombard and Jeremy Strubel follow.
AlwaysTraveling: Frank Pepe’s “The Spot” Pie-by-Pie (New Haven, CT)
Arthur Bovino — October 02, 2009
One of the fifty-odd trained pizzaiolos, at his craft at Frank Pepe’s “The Spot” in New Haven.
Restaurant: Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana (site)
Address: 157 Wooster Street, New Haven, CT 06511 (map)
Hours: Pizzeria Napoletana, Mon-Sat 11:30am-10pm, Sun 12pm-10pm. The Spot, Mon-Tue closed, Wed-Sat 4pm-10pm, Sun 2pm-8pm.
AlwaysHungry Grade: A
AlwaysHungry Recommends: Clam Pizza, Clam Pizza with Bacon, Tomato Pie, Sausage Pie
You’ve heard the clamor: the line, The Guardian’s declaration that it’s the best place in the world to eat pizza, and claims about them having the world’s best clam pie. The following recent five-pizza pie-by-pie meal is to honor the scheduled November 2nd opening in Yonkers (1955 Central Avenue) of New York’s first Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana.
Click here for pictures of Frank Pepe's beautiful "apizzas" at The Spot >>
Featured Brunch: Spina’s Lox & Pasta
The Gluttoness — September 25, 2009
Farfalle with Smoked Salmon and Cream, $12.
It’s becoming more and more common for carbonara to appear on brunch menus. Since bacon and eggs are commonplace for breakfast anyway, it makes sense to skip the toast and serve them with pasta instead. Prune was one of the first restaurants to serve this traditional Roman dish in the morning, and innumerable restaurants have since followed suit.
Spina (restaurant page), the East Village’s new (and fantastic) fresh pasta house, is the latest to offer carbonara for brunch. Between Blanca’s (formerly of I Trulli) impeccable pastas and Chef Roberto Patriarca’s (right) sensational sauces, it’s no surprise that their Orecchiette Carbonara is spot-on. The al dente ears cup the creamy sauce and thin, crisp slabs of salty guanciale. Subtly seasoned with pepper and nutmeg, the decadent flavors deepen in intensity as the sauce settles, making each bite more delicious as you get to the bottom.
While the carbonara is a success, and a surefire hangover cure, the real star of the brunch pastas is the Farfalle with Smoked Salmon and Cream, Spina’s clever twist on two other classic breakfast ingredients: lox and cream cheese. Not only is the presentation incredibly beautiful, but it’s revelatory in other ways. First, the farfalle, a pasta that’s hardly ever handcrafted, is like twisted shards of velvety pappardelle. The silken cream sauce lusciously lacquers the delicate, unstructured bowties. It’s heavy in taste yet remarkably airy on the palate, accented by the meaty bits of smoked salmon that saunter amongst the pasta. The sumptuous execution of this classic flavor is reminiscent of Sarabeth’s Goldie Lox omelette, a favorite here at AlwaysHungryNY.com, although Sarabeth’s eggs can’t really hold a candle to Blanca’s farfalle. If you’re looking for something familiar but different, Spina’s lox and pasta beats a bagel any day.
AlwaysInformed: Burger Poppin’
The Gluttoness — August 17, 2009
Champagne bottles from the ‘Quarter’ to the ‘Balthazar’ (courtesy nicks.com.au) & burger counterparts.
A recent nightclub outing brought us face-to-face with the Methuselah, an awesome and incredibly heavy bottle of champagne, equivalent to eight ordinary bottles. Bottles larger than magnums are generally filled with champagne that has been fermented in standard bottles or magnums, and are named after biblical figures. In terms of these epically-sized bottles, the Methuselah, a biblical patriarch said to have lived to the age of 969, only ranks as the seventh largest.
It’s difficult to pinpoint the exact reason why champagne bottles are named thusly. There is speculation that the names were selected “to evoke importance and even a certain extravagance.” One site, uncork.biz, claims the earliest recorded use of these names is 1725 when Bordeaux winemakers were using the name Jeroboam for the four-bottle size, “It’s presumed they selected Jeroboam, the biblical founder of Israel…because he is referred to as ‘a man of great worth.’” There are larger sizes: Melchior (24 bottles), Solomon (33 bottles), Primat (36 bottles), and the Melchizedek (40 bottles), but as you might imagine, seeing one of these is a pretty rare occasion.
In order to best comprehend the disparity between the smallest bottle, the ‘Quarter,’ and the granddaddy, the Nebuchadnezzar (a 20 bottle monster, not pictured above), we thought it best to relate the increase in bottle sizes to one of the things AlwaysHungryNY.com knows best: burgers. In this case, as with the bottles of champagne, the larger and more extravagant the hamburger, the higher the price-tag The beef and bun Nebuchadnezzar is as monumental and seldom-ordered as its bubbly brother.
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