Forking Tasty

Kangaroo Dinner

I had an over night in Sydney Australia in early January. The next day a few of my close friends from the ship were leaving the ship so we decided to grab a bit to eat for dinner. We decided to walk along the pier and see what we could find. The first place was all seafood. That didn’t work for one of us so on to the next place. There they didn’t have enough people eating so we thought maybe it’s not that good of a restaurant. The next place didn’t have tablecloths and we thought maybe it not the scale of meal we were looking for. After all these minor issues we ended up at the Sydney Ice Bar for dinner. Ironic but that is what we ended up doing…

Capturing your flag with a skewer

Way back in October I sat down for a meal with my buddy Erik Michielsen. Prior to this our shared meals have been complicated by me trying to keep 16 people fed and happy during one of my backyard supper club evenings. We finally had no other distractions and we picked a spot that would truly indulge our food curiosity and keep the conversation flowing, not that either of us have a problem talking.

Yakitori Torys was Erik’s pick and I can’t thank him enough for it. Over the 2 hour visit we…

I’ll Have A Pancakes On The Rocks Please

It was my first day in Sydney Australia. We had ported about 2 weeks prior but I couldn’t get off the ship. Most of my friends were able to get off and see the amazing city that it is while I sat in my office staring directly at the opera house. What an amazing view but a frustrating day.

My friend Sean and I left the ship and headed to The Rocks, which is the European style area in Sydney. There are lots of shops and restaurants all around. It is a historical and beautiful area of Sydney…

Finding Friends at a Street Cafe

I had a great day in Tauranga New Zealand. We had a lot of fun on the beach doing handstands and gymnastics. I eventually had to go back to the ship for a couple of hours to work. Yeah, that work thing gets in my way of living it up sometimes. However, I did get a break to go have some dinner. I ventured off to find a Thai restaurant and bumped into some of my colleagues that were having drinks at a Moroccan restaurant called Zeytin at the Mount. They said they liked it so I joined them. I had a couple local beers to join my Moroccan Tagine. It was very tasty. All the spice of Morocco with boneless chicken, sweet dates, and rice. I am not normally a big rice dish kinda guy but every once in a while it hits the spot…

Give Meat!

Christmas is NOT historically about giving. The modern day Christmas has become a frantic race to buy “crap” for people who you think will by you “crap” before the date reaches an arguably, fictitious, birthday in December. Today’s modern American culture has produced a true Christmas in July. More and more each year I hear that people start shopping for Christmas back in the summer. By comparison, people get engaged after dating for less time, spend less time organizing their finances for their tax return and plan expensive family vacations in a quarter of that time. Add to that fabricated days like “Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday” and the frenzy hits pandemonium status. Major big box chain stores open their doors at 4am. Retailers run sales called “door busters”. Really? That passed Kohl’s legal review? Why don’t they just call it “leg breakers” or “throat slashers”. Saving $10 on a $40 toy that will be played with for 5 minutes before your kids attention moves to the next gift hardly seems worth it. But then again, I don’t have kids.

I am sorry about the rant but I wanted to raise an eyebrow or two, make you think a little and set up a solution to this maddening cultural disaster. When, and if (Mom), I do have kids all presents except one will be edible. I wish I could say this practice is in full effect in my family (Thanks Uncle Doug for the awesome iPod alarm clock) but we are getting there. Giving edible gifts solves a few problems. First, it…

P.I.E. WITH Joe Giuliano and Macella Montoya

I have ate with Joey almost as much as my brother. We started the eating parties back in high school and over the years we have chowed everywhere from Oyster Bay, Long Island to Buenes Aires, Argentina. Joe plays an important part in my life. He is one part sounding board, one part grounded Italian and one part insane neurotic. Ask me about the OCD wheel or the DefCon Eating scale one day and his neurotic trait will be completely understood.

Marcella is a newer edition to the crew. Joe’s girlfriend by association but every bit her own person in reality. As a Columbian she has spunk and conviction under her normally calm and spiritually centered ora. All I have to say is, don’t flip her off a raft while floating down rapids in the Andes mountains or you will get the bite end of that ora.

Joe owns a landscaping business in Long Island and Marcella is a yoga instructor and make up artist. They recently made the move closer to Joe’s clients because the Brooklyn Long Island commute became insane. Seriously, where the hell is everyone going at 6am? This meal was much needed. The 12 blocks that used to separate us increased another 497 blocks with their move. That has kept the three of us from eating together for far too long. We kept it quiet and local and popped over to one of my Greenpoint favorites, Anella.

What we ate

Baby Arugula Salad with Shaved Manchego Cheese, Crispy Sunchokes and Hazelnut Vinaigrette
Baked Roman Gnocchi with Porcini Fondue
Fresh Pumpkin Ravioli with Shitake Mushrooms, Broccoli Rabe, and Sage Brown Butter
Fried Organic Chicken with Parsnip Mashed Potatoes and Roasted Beets

Boxing Day, Capital City, Wellington

Tulsi & Babylon Kabab, Wellington New Zealand from Anthony Anello on Vimeo.

Tulsi & Babylon Kabab, Wellington New Zealand from Anthony Anello on Vimeo.

New Zealand’s capital city is Wellington. I wish I had more time to explore the city but I only had time for a little lunch. I headed to Cuba Street, the main shopping and restaurant street. I had a couple places in mind to go to. Here is how it turned out…

Tulsi

Babylon Kebab
193 Cuba St, Wellington

7 fish in 7 hours

I know you all understand that Italians eat a lot. I also know you realize that we dial things up during the holidays, particularly Christmas Eve. What I am willing to bet most of you have fell short on is truly understanding the amount of food that gets cooked, served and consumed in the course of one long, over indulgent, hot pan may lay, melted butter tornado of a meal. Some call it the feast of the seven fishes we just call it “the start” because it kicks off a four day eating event that includes Christmas Day, “The Day After” (December 26th) and “The Hangover” (December 27th).

The day is always filled with lots of loud conversation (which can be mistaken for arguing to most outsiders) grabbing at food, over stuffing plates, sugar highs, impromptu menu items and a random nap break. For this post I’ll focus on the food. For those of you wishing to better understand the behavioral dynamics of a dysfunctional, food obsessed family of Italians, leave a comment and we can see if we can help you out Donnie Brasco style. And then…

P.I.E. WITH Mike Fox

Let’s get it out of the way right now. No. Mike was never on an 80′s sitcom with Tina Yothers nor was he in one of the best movie trilogies of all time nor was he in another hit sitcom in the 90′s. But, he did work with me way back in the beginning of the last decade when the two of us were burning the midnight oil learning our marketing chops at Digitas.

Mike and I pulled off some great campaigns back in those days and have kept a tight friendship over the last 8 years. Above all things that make Mike a good friend is his loyalty. Back in that day Mike always gave me the straight dope on deadlines, budgets and client comments. Sometimes that made things tough but he always stood by “the team” to get done whatever needed to get done. He stood by us even if it meant telling the client “no” or sticking his neck on the line for what we believed. A true team player. Through the years I saw this characteristic in effect in some of our personal ventures (lots of business talk) and again when we overlapped while working at Ogilvy. When you think about your friends there are a lot of traits that come to mind. Of all of them, loyalty is definitely in my top 5.

A few years back we started a tradition of having a big holiday steak lunch every December. This past December was no exception. Once again that loyalty trait was excercised. We always promised each other that the meal would be an over indulgence in quantity, price and length. When we started looking at the $100 plus Brunello’s on the wine list. He kept loyal to the rules and pulled the trigger on a delicious Montalcino red. Thanks Mike!

What we ate:
Rare steak with all the sides you would imagine. Check it out.

Bye 00′s. Hello 10′s.

Well that was 2009. Was it good for you? It was great for us. Ant celebrated 3 times, once in Australia, once in New Zealand and once NYC time. For me, the last night of the decade started with a meal as you would expect. The leftover lasagna we housed at Serena and Josh’s was delish. The lovely thing about lasagna is that the more days it sits in the pan the better it gets. We accompanied the day old delicious with two tasty pizzas. Spinach, mushrooms, mozzerella, pepperoni and dough from the joint down the block were the building blocks. Here are the results…