Forking Tasty

Thanksbringing 2011

This past Sunday was our third annual Thanksbringing meal. Those not familiar with the ritual can brush up here. As the name implies, Thanksbringing is the yearly potluck in which I open my kitchen up to my wonderful friends who take turns cooking and heating up their contribution to the feast.

This year we played things a bit different in the meat department. In past years we…

Hurricane Helper

Everyone did something different while Irene passed through the Tri-State area. No matter what was there is one thing we all did the same. Eat. Some of us cracked open our overstock of Spaghetti O’s and others held paella parties. Which ever end of the spectrum you fall we’d love to hear your hurricane dinner choice.

In my neck of the woods I woke up…

Sunday Standard

You can almost see the strong hand that rung the above lemon dry and tossed it to the cutting board to move onto more important tasks like eating.

The post kitchen disaster is one we all know well but most of us done’t love it like I do. No, I don’t like cleaning but I do like to review the food carnage post any good meal. Sunday suppers are always the best because just 60 minutes prior the kitchen was a buzz with at least 5 people doing multiple tasks readying the food and table for the “BIG” meal. As I walked through the kitchen on this particular evening pockets of simple ingredients, like the lemon and grated parmesan cheese, could be found in every corner of the kitchen. On the stove was a lightly oiled pan containing some remnant garlic, chopped parsley and a few spaghetti strands. In the sink a starchy calendar next to a bowl of sticky breadcrumbs and egg whites. The other counter had several glasses half full with pre-dinner wine abandoned for a proper glass and the better wine of the dinner table.

Aside from the clues around the kitchen reminding me of the meals preparation, the post supper clean up continues the conversation back to the kitchen completing the circle of dinnertime. In our house, when I was a kid, it wasn’t just about the time we were sitting and eating. It was about the before and after just the same. These days we barely have 30 minutes to eat let alone 3 hours to cook, eat and clean. So, Sunday’s make me happy. Happy to cook. Happy to eat. And, happy to clean. Of course the food is always wonderful but to slow down the craziness of life, catch up with my family or friends, hone my work ethic and relax is a mostly unrecognized biproduct of any dinnertime. I believe it should get more conscious press. This weekend take a moment and cook, talk, eat…then clean. It might just be the relaxation you needed.

Wow On A Menu Really Means Wow!

Sometimes Mother Nature causes for a cruise ship to go off the regular itinerary. In this case it had been raining so much that we could not leave Quebec City and sail to Montreal because the water level was way to high and we could not fit the ship under power lines about 10 miles from the port in Montreal. This caused for a double over night in Quebec City. This is the second week in a row that this has happened. Which means dinners out in town….

Booked Solid

One of the things that is great when you’re a crew member on a ship is when you stay at a port overnight. This will allow some of the crew to go out to dinner, which is rare on cruises. We had an overnight in Quebec City, which has a lot of restaurants. I walked around town a little early that day, around 3pm, to scout out and ask some local shop owners about there favorite restaurants in town and the most authentic restaurants. I had a few places that were mentioned a couple of times and they were not to far from the ship. I rounded up a couple people and off we went.

The Canadian’s Full English in America

I took the opportunity to write a headline that is truly global since my wife was determined to make breakfast for dinner this weekend.

For those avid readers this needs little explanation. For the new comers, my wife was born in the UK. This adequately explains her admiration for anything British, particularly bangers.

Her idea to cook a full English breakfast for dinner came immediately after I informed her of my Living Social coupon to Myers of Keswick. $10 got us $20 worth of necessary provisions at the little West Village shop. On a side note, I’m not sure you have to pay full price for anything anymore. Counter clockwise from the top…

Road Trip (Part 2)

….. continuing on with the road trip we found ourselves in Savannah Georgia. After dumping our stuff at a hotel we quickly headed down to River Street. River street is one of those rare street in America that allow you to drink alcohol on the streets. We took full advantage of this benefit before our ghost tour and dinner….

Road Trip (Part 1)

I recently took a road trip from South Carolina to Key West Florida with the southerner. The trip should take about 14 hours from start to finish. However, we did break up the trip and spent a couple days in a few places along the way and back….

Nuptial Nosh

As promised this post is all about the food at my wedding. Although, it is 3 months tardy. I can’t really believe how quickly the time has past. I am not exactly sure what happened but a little 48 hour mini-honeymoon in Philadelphia this weekend (stay tuned for that post soon) reminded me of what happens when my wife and I are left to plan eating a day at a time. Before we get into all this I feel compelled to give some of you a bit more context on the days events. First off, I married the Canadian. I have been coy in keeping her identity a bit secret over the years in this blog. Now that she is officially in the family you can expect some guest posts.

The Canadian, in case you have not followed the sloppy hidden path backwards to her identity, is of pure Indian decent. Her wonderful parents, my new in-laws, are from Bangalore and Mysore so her South Indian roots run deep. This has everything to do with the day starting with a traditional South Indian breakfast in the Gnesha temple in flushing Queens. The fact that we visited a year prior just to eat in the temple canteen, as did Tony Bourdain, heavily influenced our decision to have our ceremony here. Breakfast was straight from the heart of what South Indians eat daily and the preparation was…

A Hidden Gem

Momma Anello’s birthday was last Wednesday and the southerner and I headed to Long Island to have some dinner. We went to a little hidden gem that is always packed called the West End Cafe. The food is always great. There was a little confusion at the table and we ended up ordering about six appitizers. One of the more unique dishes we got were duck sliders. I thought it was going to come more like a pulled pork but it was in a paddy. It really had some good flavors. Speaking of flavors the crab tower was flavorful but I felt it needed more crab in it. (see above). The dinner rolls were also a highlight on the table. Really fresh and was baked with pesto and olive oil inside it. You never want to fill p on bread before the meal but this bread was worth every bit.