AlwaysPartying: Secret Sangria Recipe
Jeff Zalaznick — September 18, 2009
AlwaysHungryNY.com’s coveted sake sangria and red wine sangria.
If you’re insisting on making someone pry summer from your cold, dead hands, we’ve got a fantastic recipe for Sangria. It has been perfected through years of experimentation and excessive drinking and will probably change your life.
First, let’s just dispel one of the major Sangria myths: Soaking the fruit does nothing for the taste. You can mix the booze, drop in the chopped fruit and serve the drink immediately. The flavor imparted to the sangria from soaking the fruit in it is totally negligible. Most people’s first reaction to this claim is resistance. If you doubt, just give it a try with out.
Does eating bites of fruit while drinking sangria taste good? Sure. Does the fruit soak up the alcohol if it sits longer? Harold McGee would know better, but I’m thinking yes. Is the fruit fun? Absolutely. But, the key to enjoying great Sangria, is having the right recipe and being able at any time to put together a “pop up” Sangria in minutes.
There are only two things that you will need:
- all of the liquor listed below
- a container big enough to hold them
AlwaysLearning: Pão de Queijo
Arthur Bovino — September 04, 2009
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Pão de Queijo in Astoria at New York Pão de Queijo, $1.75.
Pão de Queijo (pronounced, pow de KAY-ju, with a nasal ‘ow’) is an addictive, gluten-free, South American salgadinho.
Where it’s from: Pão de Queijo is one of many different salgadhinos (snacks), like Coxinha and Pastels, which you can find everywhere in Brazil. It is most often sold at cafés, where it’s eaten with espresso for breakfast while standing at a counter— though it can be found all day. Variations are said to be found in Bolivia, where they’re known as Cuñapé, and in Paraguay and Northern Argentina where they’re known as Chipás.
What it is: In Portuguese Pão de Queijo means ‘cheese bread.’ Bread isn’t quite accurate— gougère or cheese profiterole is more apt. Basically, it’s a domed cheese puff one to three inches wide, made using Povilho Azedo, cassava flour (tapioca starch) usually with Queijo de Minas cheese inside. Origins are murky, but it’s thought to have been created by slaves who harvested the yucca crops and gathered the starch leftover after processing. Starch was rolled into balls and baked. Later, when cattle-farming became widespread, cheese was introduced. One Brazilian chain that specializes in it, Casa do Pão de Queijo (founded in 1967 in São Paulo), attributes it to the 18th century in the state of Minas Gerais, a region in the Southeast of Brazil, a little less than 300 miles from Rio.
How it’s made: Recipes vary, but generally, milk, oil and butter are first mixed over heat. Then tapioca flour, eggs and cheese are added. After the mixture cools, balls of dough are formed and cooked for about twenty minutes. The combination of tapioca starch and cheese creates a slightly gummy, chewy consistency inside, like a palatable rubber cement. When done right, they are crisp on the outside and light, airy, warm and slightly chewy on the inside with full, cheesy flavor. One of Brazil’s best places for pão de queijo is in São Paulo— Pão de Queijo Haddock Lobo —a little shop in a neighborhood called Jardins Paulista.
Where to get it in New York: There are pockets of Brazilian restaurants downtown (like Casa and Cafe La Palette in the West Village, and one place in the East Village, Esperanto) that serve pão de queijo, as well as a few in Midtown (Emporium Brasil) on what’s left of Little Brazil on 46th Street (“Little Brazil Street”) and also in Newark, and Astoria, Queens.
One AlwaysHungryNY.com favorite spot for pão is New York Pão de Queijo (right), a small café in Astoria. It has other treats including açai na tigela and a bevy of Brazilian fruit juices. Fair warning: once you’ve eaten one, it’s difficult to stop.
AlwaysPartying: Food Trucks at the Brooklyn Yard
Arthur Bovino — May 27, 2009
Considering its environmental issues, the Gowanus Canal might not seem like the go-to spot for snacking, but last Saturday at the Brooklyn Yard in Carroll Gardens, it was. Van Leeuwen and the Green Pirate were the only actual trucks at Parked!: The Best Food Trucks in NYC, but plenty of good food could be had from Pizza Moto and Margarita of the Red Hook huaraches vendors.
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