AlwaysInformed: Passover Meatballs
Arthur Bovino — March 30, 2010
Beef and Matzoh “Passover Meatballs” at The Meatball Shop.
No, The Meatball Shop isn’t kosher, nevertheless, they’ve gotten into the holiday spirit by creating a Passover Meatball as the daily special. It was featured last night, and a call to the restaurant confirmed they would be serving it again tonight.
The Passover Meatball is made with beef liver, chicken liver, ketchup, onion, egg, and of course, matzoh. The balls are more browned on the outside than their other renditions, and it has an almost meatloaf-like consistency. The matzoh was noticeably present— ragged, soft pieces that added texture.
Paired with The Meatball Shop’s classic tomato sauce, topped with grated cheese, and served with focaccia for scraping up the leftover sauce, the Passover Meatballs make a great rainy night dish ($7.00).
AlwaysInformed: Lunch at Dickson’s Farmstand Meats
Maryse Chevrière — March 16, 2010
Salt and Pepper Sausage on a Roll.
Those in the environs of Chelsea Market during lunch certainly don’t want for good dining options, the new offerings at Dickson’s Farmstand Meats included among them. The butcher shop, which has been serving lunch for three or four weeks, offers about five sandwiches that change daily (check their site).
A representative noted that every day they try to have two sandwiches and two sausages on the offer (the Beef Chili is a staple). The star of today’s menu? It was a deceptively simple-sounding Salt and Pepper Sausage on a Roll ($9.00). The loose, juicy sausage has a snappy casing, and comes drenched in richly-flavored, sweetish, baked beans with burnt ends. The chewy baguette holds up nicely, and the runny whole grain mustard under the sausage adds a spicy kick. Say hello to the new gourmet chili dog. Toss that tie over your shoulder, hunch over the tray, and get ready to chow down. This is going to get messy.
Featured Restaurant: The Meatball Shop
Arthur Bovino — February 10, 2010
Clockwise from top: Spicy Pork Meatballs with Spicy Meat Sauce over Rigatoni, Chicken and Salmon Meatball Sliders, Beef Meatball Hero, and White Beans.
Meatballs. Even if you didn’t grow up in an Italian-American household, just bringing the word up in conversations can kick off impassioned discussions that involve meat methodology, combination theorizing, and philosophizing about technique. But a restaurant dedicated solely to meatballs? That would have made my great-grandfather laugh. And that’s exactly what co-owners, Daniel Holzman and Michael Chernow, are going to do with The Meatball Shop, all the way to the bank.
AlwaysNYCWFF: Meatball Madness, Carmellini Wins!
GutterGourmet — October 12, 2009
Top, Locanda Verde’s winning Lamb Meatball Sliders. Bottom left, Judges Gail Simmons, Frank Bruni, and Jeffrey Steingarten. Right, from left to right, Pat LaFreida; Meatball Madness winner, Andrew Carmellini; Giada De Laurentiis and Mark Pastore.
I always loved, as a child, the ending of the song ‘On Top Of Spaghetti’ when the mushed meatball turns into a beautiful meatball tree in the garden. Sunday night, that childhood dream became a reality in The Terminal Stores la. Venue, the site of Meatball Madness debuting at the New York Wine & Food Festival and hosted by the beautiful Giada. The meatball has never received the equal respect with the burger that it so rightly deserves, but this event may have helped to even the score. Andrew Carmellini was victorious with Locanda Verde’s lamb meatball, which I have to agree with judges Frank Bruni, Jeffrey Steingarten and Gail Simmons, are incredible.
AlwaysInformed: Meatball Madness Preview
Arthur Bovino — October 08, 2009
Meatball Sliders at The Little Owl.
It’s finally here this weekend: New York City Wine & Food Festival’s Meatball Madness hosted by Giada De Laurentiis. The GutterGourmet has been waiting for this moment for months. He’ll be at the event covering it for us on Sunday. To bone up:
-To learn about participants, visit relevant sites and AlwaysHungryNY.com’s restaurant pages below.
-For great meatball pictures, revisit our Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs roundup.
-For who else it might have been interesting to see compete and in which categories, read the Meatball Madness preview that GutterGourmet wrote after Meatball Melee of the Boroughs.
AlwaysInformed: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
The Hungry Goat — September 17, 2009
The popular children’s book-turned 3-D animated feature, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, (official site) opens in theaters tomorrow. You can watch the trailer here (did you know MR. T, Al Roker and Neil Patrick Harris did voices for it?). To celebrate, we have compiled pictures of some of AlwaysHungryNY.com’s favorite meatball dishes around New York City.
Enjoy.
Grilled Quail Meatball Skewers from barMasa.
Meatballs with Pine Nuts and Raisins from Frankies 457.
Meatball Hero from Defonte’s of Brooklyn.
Click here for more great AlwaysHungryNY.com meatball pictures >>
HungryChefs: Chefs Love Lupa, Mixed on Hot Dogs
The Gluttoness — June 11, 2009
Roasted Pork Shoulder “Gyro” with Pickled Cucumber & Yogurt from Anthos at Street & Savory
Some of the country’s best chefs attended Citymeals-on-Wheels’ Street & Savory Tasting Event. We’ve already brought you pictures of all the dishes and rounded up our favorite plates, but we were also able to speak with the chefs.
Our questions were obvious: What are you AlwaysHungry for? Which New York City restaurant do you crave? And in keeping with the night’s theme: what would you serve if you opened your own street cart? Some chefs took the easy route, promoting dishes they had prepared for the evening, others were quite creative with their responses.
AlwaysInformed: Harry’s Italian Pizza Bar
The Gluttoness — June 05, 2009
Eggplant Parmigiana Hero at Tuesday’s Dine Around Downtown
Gold St. may have seemed like a good idea in theory, but the 24-hour diner/bar/sushi concept wasn’t exactly embraced by locals in the financial district. As previously reported, the father-son team of Harry and Peter Poulakakos, is refurbishing the 2 Gold St. space and reverting to their successful “Harry’s” brand, this time with an Italian spin: Harry’s Italian Pizza Bar. If the term “pizza bar” sounds familiar, that’s because they’re also responsible for the perennially packed, Adrienne’s Pizza Bar.
We’ve gotten the early word on some of Harry’s new signature dishes. The menu will elaborate on Adrienne’s and include its renowned Old-Fashioned Pizzas. Aside from pizza, the big draws will be: family-style pasta portions (fitting considering this family-owned venture is under Peter’s management), a Meatball Hero, Steak Pizzaiolo, Stuffed Artichokes and Baked Clams. If you can’t wait until the June 15th opening, assuage your cravings for Italian at Adrienne’s in the meantime. Try the eggplant topping on your next old-fashioned pie— the thin slices make for a great Eggplant Parmigiana Pizza.
AlwaysInvestigating: About Giada’s Meatball Madness…
GutterGourmet — May 21, 2009
Now that Dish du Jour’s “Meatball Melée of the Boroughs” is behind us, and Nicky’s Famous Meatballs, a dark horse, deep-fried meatball by Bello Giardino’s, has taken the title, Best Meatballs in the Borough, it’s time to look forward to the next great meatball competition. This fall’s return of the Food Network’s New York City Wine and Food Festival (presented October 8-11 by Food&Wine and Travel+Leisure) is rumored to be featuring an entirely new event hosted by Giada De Laurentiis: Meatball Madness. It would have been a close call to choose between getting up close to Giada or the city’s best meatballs, thankfully we won’t have to. And who better than Giada to judge the best balls?
The event has inspired some intense thought about the competition’s potential participants and possible categories. For the approval of the powers that be, we submit the following:
The Traditional Italian/American Category
1) Lazzara’s gargantuan Meatball Parmigiana Hero (now at 2 locations: 38th Street and the new offshoot in Hell’s Kitchen on 9th Ave.).
2) Papa Perrone’s (best Midtown pizza truck) for meatball sandwiches and meatball pizza.
3) Manganaro’s Grosseria (no, not their archrival relatives next door, Manganaro’s Hero Boy).
4) John’s of 12th Street for spaghetti and meatballs in a Tony Soprano atmosphere circa 1908.
Click here for more suggested "Meatball Madness" categories >>
AlwaysHungryNY: Num Pang In The Ass
The Gluttoness — April 06, 2009
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A while back, the Council of Eaters convened over a dinner at Kampuchea Noodle Bar. We loved our starters, namely the Pork Belly, Ribs and Pickles, but we were underwhelmed by the sandwiches. Having recently tasted our first Baoguette, the bar was set mighty high at the time, and “The Kampuchea” frankly couldn’t compete. While the Stewed Oxtail was a standout, the experience made us skeptical of the forthcoming Num Pang, the restaurant’s Cambodian “Banh Mi“ offshoot.
Upon closer investigation, the fact of the matter is that Num Pang’s sandwiches are actually delicious, and a significant improvement to their predecessors at Kampuchea. The soft yet sturdy Parisi Bakery rolls, are slathered in a spicy chili mayo, and pair beautifully with the bouquet of fresh ingredients—cucumber, pickled carrots and cilantro. As usual, some hit the spot more than others, here’s the rundown:
Our favorite was the Pulled Duroc Pork with Spiced Honey. The substantial roll soaked up the flowing pork juice. The spiced honey and vinegar-soaked veggies combined for an awesome sweet-and-sour profile that worked famously in collaboration with the salty swine. Runner-up went to the Peppercorn Catfish. Large fillets mingled with sweet soy sauce, that enhanced and that did not overwhelm. The perfectly cooked Skirt Steak, seasoned with crushed coriander and peppercorn, was challenging to keep together, but the excellent cooking temperature, and the essence of charcoal grill, made for some robust and enjoyable bites.
Coconut Tiger Shrimp was as enjoyable as Kampuchea’s, where we liked it. Hoisin Veal Meatball had no sign of hoisin, but rather, the tomato and basil accompaniments made it resemble and taste like an Italian meatball sub topped with traditional banh mi trimmings. The odd yet intriguing combination would have received more attention had they not skimped so much on the meatballs. As can be expected, the Vegetarian Num Pang was the least exciting.
Like our dinner at Kampuchea, Num Pang left us with a good impression—the former earned itself a solid B, and the sandwiches warranted an even more favorable B+/A- rating. While our experience at Kampuchea ended with a very friendly chat with Chef Ratha Chau, my encounter with Ratha at Num Pang was quite the contrary.
Click Here to Read About Our Encounter... >>
Dish of the Week: Centrico’s “Spaghetti & Meatballs”
The Gluttoness — March 24, 2009
Macaroni and cheese, chicken and waffles, cheeseburgers and fries—every culture has their own collection of heart-warming favorites. When it comes to Mexican cuisine, Sopa Seca is one of those classic, comfort foods. Literally translating to “dry soup”, Centrico’s version is billed as “Mexican Spaghetti,” and can be served with Meatballs (albondingas), thus creating a perfect fusion comfort food: Mexican Spaghetti and Meatballs. Cleverly using alphabet noodles to make it all the more playful, the smoky, creamy, tomato-based pasta always makes for a satisfying end to even the longest of days.
When I asked the Chef Aaron Sanchez how my favorite dish came about, I found out that, while this Mexican-style pasta was fairly new to my repertoire, it was a dish that he was practically raised on. The first time that his mother, Zarela Martinez, chef and owner of Zarela on the UES, made sopa seca for Aaron, he instantly fell in love with it. He begged her to make the dish so often that she eventually got fed up and refused. Instead of finding a new favorite, Aaron decided that he would learn how to make the dish himself, and after several attempts, he was finally able to recreate his mom’s classic. Traditional sopa seca is not served with meatballs, but Aaron wondered how his beloved dish would taste when combined with another childhood favorite, his grandmother’s “sopa de albondigas” (meatball stew served in broth with vegetables). Having perfected his mom’s sopa seca, he decided to evolve the recipe by including his grandmother’s meatballs. Adding the albondingas to the sopa seca seemed like the obvious move towards creating a fusion masterpiece. Sanchez’ sopa seca demonstrates a fusion of cultures and generations, but what gives his dish its unique Mexican flair is the use of roasted chipotle, queso cotija, and fresh cilantro.
The first time I had this dish at Chef Aaron Sanchez’s aforementioned eatery, I was hooked. As a neighbor to Centrico and thus a frequent consumer of this dish, I almost lost it when I called to place my usual order and was told that it had been taken off the menu. I felt like Aaron must have as a child, begging the restaurant to fill my insatiable need for this Mexican comfort classic. Thankfully, I didn’t have to turn to my own kitchen for the solution. After a few tweaks, Aaron returned his mouth-watering sopa seca to the menu and it’s been better than ever. The dish is a never ending work in progress, as Chef Sanchez will always be on the quest to do justice to his addictive reinterpretation of his family staple.
AlwaysHungry: Defonte’s of Brooklyn
February 24, 2009
The Manhattan branch of Defonte’s, the old-school Red Hook sandwich shop, finally opened at 21st St & Third Ave. The store’s design more resembles a chain eatery (à la Potbelly’s) than the Red Hook original but New Yorkers lining up 15-deep have quickly demonstrated the previously untapped, intense desire for these famous, over-sized deli sandwiches. The AlwaysHungry Council of Eaters sampled six (five hot and one cold) and from first glance they were truly archetypal Italian-American sandwiches. Not fancy yet sophisticated. Beautiful golden bread with a crisp exterior housed generous piles of thinly-sliced meats, meatballs and chicken parmesan.
There is no debate that Defonte’s is good and a welcome addition to the neighborhood, but unfortunately, we were all repelled by Defonte’s signature fried eggplant which garnishes many of their sandwiches. The paper-thin slivers of eggplant were each suffocated by a pound of soggy, once-fried batter. These slices both tasted and looked like tofu and their blandness seemed to negate the flavor of each sandwich. With or without the eggplant, every sandwich was in dire need of condiments (oil, vinegar, mustard and/or mayo for the cold ones, and extra tomato sauce for the hot ones).
The Sausage & Pepper sandwich was our favorite. The Italian sausages had the full bodied flavor we were looking for, which was lacking in the rest of our order, making us thankful for our office bottle of sriracha. Still, with Defonte’s just blocks away (Baoguette and Defonte’s, how lucky are we?), we will have to re-evaluate our stance on these sandwiches. To avoid the plight of the eggplant, next time we plan to build our own sandwiches—Jeff’s thinking a ham, roast beef, hot salad, mustard, balsamic & oil. With no nearby competition, we’re definitely glad they’re here. They have so much potential and we are sure they are going to get better.
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