Forking Tasty

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…

A baker I am not. I will be the first to admit that I prefer to cook without measurements and recipes. A “little” of this or a “sprinkle” of that, along with a good gut sense, is truly all you need when cooking. An uncanny olfactory system and more taste buds per capital than the population of some horrible new Williamsburg restaurants (another post) helps a lot too.

Baking on the other hand is a completely different story. Hence this failed Red Velvet cake. Longs tory short, I am attempting a tres leche cake for Thanksbringing today. As a back up I bought a box of cake mix. It so happened that it was buy one get one free. I went for the red velvet thinking, “How hard can it be?” Obviously, for me, kinda hard. I’ll tell ya how the tres leche comes out. Stay tuned.

For three months this summer I was cruising through the Mediterranean experiencing life in Italy, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Croatia, France and Monaco. I’m sure you have caught a couple of my posts while I was there. I could have done a lot more posts but there was so much food I encountered on my travels that it would become a full time job just to write them all. I put together this video to show you all the amazing food I either ate or saw and wanted to eat. The food in europe is so fresh and delicious it makes it really hard to stop eating. The company I got to enjoy the food with made it even better. The things that stood out to me were the multiple wine and olive oil tastings I went to. Not only did I taste the incredible wine and ridiculous olive oil but the food they served as well was equally delicious and authentic. I learned a lot about the different wines and the acidities in the olive oil. Many of the meals I ate each had it’s own uniqueness to it. From my company to the service to the food and drinks, the mediterranean had it all to make each experience a memorable one.

Last week I had the unique opportunity to partake in an ancient ritual that in modern days has come under quite a lot of scrutiny. I’ll let the video speak for itself, mostly. I will say, I love meat. I think our industrial food chain is a disturbing mess but at the root, eating meat is a pleasure that I will not willingly give up. The recent advent of smaller farms providing better living conditions, feed and slaughter practices have thankfully given me an alternative to funding these disastrous factory farms and “processing” plants through my meat habit. I am conscious of where I by my meat from. How they were raised and how they were killed are just as important as what they taste like. In fact the two go hand in hand. That said it is very difficult to buy meat from these sources all the time. Not to mention expensive. I hope, over time, these smaller farms become the norm and the availability and usage increase to become the norm. The video above chronicles my very personal experience on the road to this goal. Enjoy.

If you are looking for more, my friend Liza does a great job telling a bovine story.

It sucks in New York right now. Dark at 5:30 is a total mind screwball. All the more reason to get a 5pm coffee. Which is exactly what I did. As I waited for my indulgent and spontaneously ordered lemon square, I wondered what was taking an extra minute. New Yorkers are so impatient. Seconds later this box arrived. I was confused and apparently my face gave me away. The barista looked down at the box, then back at me and smiled as he went off to make a grande carmel, mocha, latte, with soy, equal and no foam. Never-the-less. I was amused. I love good packaging. If Starbucks is trying to act more like Apple I love it. No food establishment has yet to beat my UK favorite EAT. Just look at their packaging and design. Simple and lovely. As much as I liked my little Starbucks box I couldn’t help but think of the extra time it takes to box it up, the extra expense for the box, and the cost to store those boxes. This reminds me of one of my favorite packings of all time. The original McDonald’s Yogurt parfait container. It was a flipped soda lid that keep the granola and yogurt separate. Talk about a multitasking, money saving idea. Dear Starbucks, thanks but all that hassle for this little thing seems a touch ineffiecient.

My buddy Sean Bell and I sent out to explore Venice. Sean had been there before and I asked him for the Sean Bell Tour of Venice. We set out in the morning and had a lot of walking to do that day. Sean, (not a morning person fyi, typical musician) needed a quick fix before we get into the heart of Venice. The video shows the typical sandwich you can get at numerous cafes around Venice, let alone most of italy. However, this sandwich was filled with tuna and olives and was one of Sean’s favorite. Me on he other hand, I can’t stand the smell of tunafish let alone the taste. It was just the pick-me-up Sean needed to give me a great tour of Venice. We walked and saw one of the most unique cities I have ever been to. Where in a normal city you have road, Venice has rivers. Cities have cars, Venice has boats. It’s different but a very beautiful city.

Are you kidding me?

For those of you not in NYC, it snowed today. It’s not January. Not even December. Barely November. It’s just not right. Rather than harp on the disastrous outdoor weather, I combated it with a little hibernation vaccination. Nothing cures the abnormally bitter, cold, slush filled street chaos better than a big pot of beef bubbling on the stove all day. That’s right, the french classic beef bourguignon. It warmed my house all day and then warmed my soul all night. Talk about turning a negative into a positive. Stay warm and dry NYC tomorrow is bound to be better.

Before I left Greece I wanted to try a dish I had seen many times but never tried. The above is called Moussaka and when I saw it on other peoples plates I thought it was lasagna. It’s close to lasagna, but not exactly. Moussaka is a casserole made by layering eggplant with a spiced meat filling then topping off with a creamy bechamel sauce that is baked. It is perhaps the most widely recognized of all Greek dishes. If your ever in Greece you have to get one. After I ordered my Moussaka I asked the waiter to put a little Greek Tirokafteri (Spicy Cheese Dip) on the side of the plate. I had some in Santorini and fell in love with this cheese. It’s like nothing I have ever had before. They tell me that each restaurant makes it differently but it is mainly a mixture of feta and ricotta. These are two Greek treats I’ll have to recreated back home in New York.

photo credit: Kun Kim

Ariba! Ole! and Amigos!

The season 3 finally of REEL TASTY went off better than we could have ever expected. Again we bit off a little more than we could chew. In the end the Mexican fiesta, with our favorite three amigos, was a pinata smash hit.  Although we didn’t have an actual pinata we did have everything else very well represented form pork to beans to tequila.

For those who are unfamiliar with our dinners, Reel Tasty is Forking Tasty’s summer supper club where Aimee, my co-chef/host, and I screen a movie on a 2 story building while our guests sample some of our latest and tastiest gourmet creations. As many of you who follow know, we had a few run in’s with the weather this season. For our final dinner on the deck, mother nature gave us…

…on his birthday.

Arguably it’s tough to buy gifts for people once they pass the age in which they can buy stuff for themselves. Some of us give up and go for the standards; A tie, a meal or the all encompassing gift certificate. I dedicate this post not to the day I was born but to the person who knows how I live best. Aside from the normal gift giving difficulties I am notoriously picky when it comes to presents. I want to be surprised but I also want the gift to be so amazingly useful that I feel I could never live without the treasure.

One of the first things my wife ever said to me, which has been mentioned in this blog several times , was one of the most simple and true statements I’ve ever heard. These are the things that make you fall in love but that’s a post best suited for February. When asked what is her greatest possession she replied…