Forking Tasty

P.I.E. WITH Jordan Berkowitz

Jordan knows food. Jordan knows a bunch of other stuff too. Every time I talk to him I realize how much “other stuff” is up in his brain. See, the thing with Jordan is…He doesn’t talk fluff. He is one of those people that gives you hard factual reference to the topic you are currently discussing. I like that. In fact, I wish more people had that.

I met Jordan a few years ago when we started working with him and the boys at Undercurrent. Since then we have shared a bunch of meals together in at least two states. On the most memorable list would be the NOLA style crawdad meal in Austin Texas. We covered the table with seafood and then meticulously cleaned it off by eating the tasty mess.

Jordan has worn many hats. A butcher, a big agency guy, a small think tank guy and most recently a husband. Thanks JB for always keeping the conversation stimulating and always incorporating something tasty in our chats.

What we ate
Chamame-seasoned heirloom edamame
Bonito Consumme
Sushi and Sashimi course
Wild salmon 5 ways-honshimeji, shiso rice, soy-ikura butter
Grilled bigeye tuna “Waldorf”-pea salad, asian pear, pickled onions, orange-miso sauce

Just for the Halibut

I have been waiting to use that headline for 8 years. My fish guy at Todaro brothers used to say it to me every time asked him for a halibut filet. Tuesday night I whipped up this little halibut dish. Spiced with some salt pepper and old bay I sauteed the fish with some shallots, portobello mushrooms and fennel. As a quick side I tried to replicate a dish I had at Anella the other night. I sauteed up these brussel sprout leaves in a little bacon. I know slightly off the regimen but I didn’t eat the bacon, just used the flavor. They came out nice but not as crispy as the other night. Although, the halibut was perfect and worked really well with the fennel and portobellos.

Ahhhh Bali

Ahhhh Bali, what a beautiful place to be with friends. It was our first beach port in a while. A bunch of us decided to head to the Ramacandidasa Resort and Spa about 15 minutes away. It was perfect, it had a pool, the beach, a restaurant and it was a perfect sunny day. We got some color and a few drinks by the pool to start the day. I took it upon myself to go check out the menu. After a few hours we ordered a fantastic Indonesian lunch and shared it family style. As we sat by the pool we ate and ate and ate. Not to shabby…

Ancient Temple In Borobudur

The ship organized a tour for the crew to go and see an ancient temple in Borobudur, Indonesia. It was truly amazing. It is super old and has all kinds of carvings all around this temple. It was a rainy day but it held up until we were done with the temple. Then it started to rain hard. We needed to grab some cover and the best way to grab some cover is to go eat some lunch…

P.I.E. WITH Tarikh and Josh

It’s rare, even for me, when a work partnership turns into a friendship considering that the two guys above do not work with me everyday. Tarikh and Josh are the duo that make unbelievable ideas come to life at their company, Uncommon Projects. It has been just over a year now when I called up Uncommon and asked them to put a GPS tracker in a sneaker. They said no. Then I asked, “Hey, how about a bike” They agreed. (More on that picture taking, GPS enabled Yahoo! bike here) Thankfully we finally got down to celebrating the project at Vinegar Hill House about a week or so ago.

Josh Rooke-Ley is the quiet, coding genius who rarely is scene without a fitted Mets hat on his head. Among his many passions he has become quite the cyclist since the Yahoo! Bike project launched. For a while he was riding to the office in DUMBO all the way from his house in Queens. It even inspired this iPhone app. You know someone is into their work if it changes behavior in their personal life.

Tarikh Korula is a master of hardware and software mixing. In a world of new apps, programs and websites, Tarikh has the magical fingers to hack, invent, make and modify devices that can do things never before seen. Tarikh and I had more than one 4am night getting the bikes ready for shipment. Through those wee hours we covered everything from hip hop legends to failed relationships to beer preferences. I love to get him going on a topic he finds interesting. The conversation always goes to a great place. Outside of work he has gone deep into the ambient music world. He has started turning out performances that use all sorts of sounds in his melodies including old traffic reports. Super fun stuff to close you eyes to and listen hard.

Guys thanks for making work so fun and making play that much more interesting.

What we ate:
Farmstead Cheese & Salami with homemade crackers, pickled quail egg
Fennel Salad with provolone piccante, green olives, currants
Braised Beef Cheeks with celeriac, celery, chestnut honey
Red Wattle Country Chop with homemade sauerkraut

Staying Faithful

It has been a week and a half since I have posted about my food regimen delights. We broke down with last Fridays lunch and had some fun at the Gingerbread Party but other than that I have been quite faithful. Then I had to get in all the Santa Barbara meals. So, the next few days will be some simple FOOD PORN posts of what I have been up to in my kitchen and how I have been cooking healthy until the big Christmas 48hrs throwdown.

I’ll start off in chronological order with the Sunday before lasts Corn flake crusted pork chop and sauteed asparagus.

A $332 Tradition

As traditions go this one is awesomely rich in more than one way. It started 3 years ago when my buddy Mike and I decided that acting like fat cats (which we are not) for an epic long, holiday lunch would be a fun and enjoyable idea.

The 5 rules on how to lunch like a fat cat.

1. Dress up. A suit would be best. But slacks and a cashmere sweater over a brooks brother shirt will suffice.

2. Find an old world, New York, steak restaurant where both the decor and the waiters pre-date your birth.

3. Over order in both size and quantity of your food. Above is an example of a proper size order. 32oz of Bone in ribeye.

And here is an example of quantity over ordering.

P.I.E. WITH Kelly and Ben Long

Kelly is my dear friend and Ben is her husband, but that was all about to change. I have known Kelly for a very long time but since we live almost 3000 miles apart I had not, until the day before this pic was taken, met her husband Ben. That doesn’t mean I didn’t know all about him and he didn’t know all about me. But we will get to that.

Kel and I work at Yahoo! together and we became fast friends about 3 years ago. We have a lot in common. The most critical bit would probably be woo factor. This girl can turn a terrorist into a best friend in minutes. I have not seen it at that extreme but I do not doubt it can be done. She thinks. She does. She makes shit happen. Most admirable is that she dreams. And then turns those dreams into reality. Her Irish blood makes her a ton of fun and occasionally a liability (in that, I-am-really-tired-can’t-we-go-home sort of way). None the less she enjoys every drop of life and I love her company. Her love for wine and food is trumped by no one other than her husband. Well….she still loves wine more. So much she tweets about it.

Ben is her husband and now my buddy. About 10 minutes after we met we were sharing food and over ordering. Talk about getting along. Prior to us meeting the line on me meeting Ben was, “You guys will get along so well as when you meet you will forget I am here” (Kelly). Well, we didn’t forget she was there but we did get along very well. After one meal, we were thick like thieves. Ben is a corp guy doing a day to day in the music biz but has his moonlighting life of course. His love for food has brought him to start a supper club,. It has now moved from their apartment to a sushi restaurant that is closed one day a week.

These two make a beautiful couple and give me even more to look forward to during my San Francisco visits. Guys, SB was a blast. See you soon in SF.

What we ate:
Where do I begin. How about this!

Swanky and Great

Movida – Melbourne Australia from Anthony Anello on Vimeo.

Melbourne Australia is a cool looking city with lots of restaurants and cafes. I am happy to be going back there in a few weeks after we sail to New Zealand. The main thing I wanted to do in town was send my Christmas gifts (which I did) and eat a really good lunch. We found this restaurant that was down a street covered in graffiti. The street was amazing to look at. I need to go back and check out the rest of the street. On the street there is a Tapas Restaurant called Movida. This was just what the doctor ordered…

The Next Best Thing To The Great Barrier Reef

I finally made it to Australia but I didn’t have a lot of time off the ship in Cairns. The big thing to do in Cairns is to go to the Great Barrier Reef to do a dive or even a snorkel. That really would have been fun to do and see. I did, however, manage to get myself into an espresso bar in between checking out the town. This was MUCH more exciting then getting a glimpse of the Great Barrier Reef (sigh). Bang is a swank little espresso bar in the small town of Cairns…