Serious Eats |
- Beyond Curry: Indian Mango Cooler (Panha)
- Supermarket Sweets: We Try The Two New Flavors of Teddy Grahams
- Market Scene: University District Farmers Market in Seattle, WA
- A Sandwich a Day: The Godfather Part II at No. 7 Sub
- AHT Giveaway: New York Burger Map from All-You-Can-Eat Press
- 5 Boston-Area Chinese Buffets That Are Actually Quite Tasty
- 12 Red, White, and Blue Drinks for Independence Day
- Hot Kitchen Does Standout Sichuan in the East Village
- The Best Sweets We Ate in June
- Raw Night at Arya Bhavan in Chicago
- Lunch Box: Make-Ahead Chimichurri Shrimp and Corn Salad
- We Chat with Chef Lisa Giffen of Maison Premiere on Turning from Cook to Chef
- A Hamburger Tuesday: Bacon-Stuffed, Pastrami, Wasabi Sliders, and More
- Kraft's Inside Out Cheeseburger
- The Best American Ciders in Cans
| Beyond Curry: Indian Mango Cooler (Panha) Posted: 02 Jul 2013 12:42 PM PDT [Photograph: Prasanna Sankhe] There's nothing quite like a glass of chilled Panha to lift your spirits on a hot, muggy day. Sweet, sour, and instantly refreshing, it's a delicious use for mangoes before they fully ripen. Across India, the concentrate is stored in glass containers and kept in the refrigerator. When guests pop up unexpectedly, voilà! Pretty glasses with the most beautiful golden hue emerge in a jiffy. In the western part of Maharashtra, India, which is home to some of the finest mangoes, this drink is made at the start of summer, early in the growing season. To select mangoes for Panha, go for the ones that are more green than yellow—they should be just entering their ripening phase and not yet totally soft to the touch. Panha is great for countering dehydration, and the concentrate stores well for up to a month. All you have to do is add two tablespoons to a glass and fill it up with water. Feel free to add flavor garnishes of your choice, like rock salt, mint, or toasted and powdered cumin. If you like the earthy taste of jiggery, you can use half a cup of it in place of the sugar. Get The Recipe!About the author: Denise Dsilva Sankhe is a writer and creative director by profession. But that's only when she isn't eating her way across India. She recreates this delicious cuisine in her Mumbai home, which she shares with her husband, who has long since given up his determination to have salads for dinner. Get the Recipe!       |
| Supermarket Sweets: We Try The Two New Flavors of Teddy Grahams Posted: 02 Jul 2013 01:14 PM PDT [Photographs: Carrie Vasios] Teddy Grahams are a genius snack. They hit the intersection of tasty, carb-y, cute, and, most importantly, sweet but not too sweet (i.e. you can eat 100 without thinking twice). The honey and cinnamon flavors have kept me from losing my lunch on more than one car trip as a kid, and saved my sanity when I was a counselor on long, hot bus trips with overexcited little campers. Original Teddy Grahams: geared towards children, play well with adults. And let's be honest, Mom and Dad are much more likely to buy cookies they like nibbling on than some sweet-of-the-moment which little Bobby will eat for a week then get sick of. Yet the two newest flavors on the market—Apple and Strawberry-Banana—immediately struck me as being for-kids-only. A dangerous move. Top row: Apple. Bottom Row: Strawberry-Banana. Good thing they don't come in a mixed box. Both these new cookies have strong smells. Opening the box of Apple Grahams felt like walking into a first grade classroom. I can almost taste the fruit juice, hear the scratch of crayons on cheap, thick yellowish paper, and feel the sticky fingers. Funnily enough, the Grahams themselves are a little sticky, like they've been coated in an apple veneer. Luckily, the flavor is more mild than the smell. These cookies don't taste like a bright crisp Pink Lady apple, but they don't taste like fake sour gummy apples, either. They have a clean apple juice flavor with no lingering fake aftertaste, meaning, like their forebearers (wah wah), they're easily gobbled up by the handful. My one suggestion? A hint of cinnamon would be nice. Bottom line: they'd get a B+ in the survey class I'll teach one day on childhood snacks. Strawberry Banana, on the other hand, fails the class. They taste like a pink Starburst mixed with children's Tylenol. The whole point of Teddy Grahams is that you can eat a few handfuls without having taste-bud overload; these are in your face with fake fruit flavor. I shudder to think how they'd pair with a glass of juice. Overall, I'd definitely stick to the old flavors. And please, Nabisco, don't come out with any ice cream flavored bears.    |
| Market Scene: University District Farmers Market in Seattle, WA Posted: 02 Jul 2013 12:11 PM PDT  VIEW SLIDESHOW: Market Scene: University District Farmers Market in Seattle, WA Foraged goods like sea beans and morel mushrooms bridge the two seasons.[Photograph: Naomi Bishop] In a city where every neighborhood boasts its own farmers market, Seattle's University District Farmers Market is the magnet, the market that pulls people from all over town. Numerous publications have dubbed it one of America's best farmers markets (Travel and Leisure, Boston Globe, SheKnows, Forbes, US News, Daily Greens), but it hasn't changed the feel of this craft-free, food- and farmers-only market, held Saturdays (9am-2pm) year-round. Celebrating its 20th anniversary this summer, the U-District market distinguishes itself with an enormous selection of goods, from traditional crock-fermented kim chi and the highly regarded Rainier cherry, to fresh, whole salmon and a bounty of bivalves. Click through the slideshow to see the full spread at the University District Farmers Market » About the author: Naomi Bishop is a Seattle based food and travel writer. Find her wandering through words and worlds on her blog, TheGastroGnome, where she claims that being a GastroGnome is not about sitting idly on the front lawn of culinary cottages. Follow her explorations of cooking and culture around the world at @GastroGnome. Get restaurant suggestions and locate local eats in the Northwest from her app, Unique Eats of the Northwest.    |
| A Sandwich a Day: The Godfather Part II at No. 7 Sub Posted: 02 Jul 2013 10:19 AM PDT In this great city of ours, one could eat a different sandwich every day of the year—so that's what we'll do. Here's A Sandwich a Day, our daily look at sandwiches around New York. Got a sandwich we should check out? Let us know. —The Mgmt. The Godfather Part II. [Photograph: Andrea Kang] Some say The Godfather Part II is superior to the first original movie. At No. 7 Sub, some may say The Godfather Part II, the sandwich, is superior to the Italian hero. And aptly so. Here, the classic gets revamped into a spicier, intensely flavored sub with some unusual flavors that work surprisingly well. The first curve ball: Mexican chorizo and pickled jalapeños give the sandwich formidable heat that lingers on your tongue. Creamy sweet potato and melted muenster mellow out the spiciness and fuse all the flavors together. A thin layer of Thai basil also adds a refreshing herbal flavor to cut through the fatty meat. At times, the chorizo threatens to overwhelm the sandwich with its meatiness, and perhaps would have been better neutralized with a greater dose of sweet potato. The salami also tastes and feels more like ham. But all in all, the sandwich works in the way we've expected from No. 7. The bread itself has a very thin, light and chewy crust and a yielding, fluffy interior that holds all the sandwich innards with ease. About the author: Andrea Kang is a magazine journalism student in her senior year at Northwestern University. She is the editor in chief of Spoon Magazine, Northwestern's campus food publication, and loves to blog about her food adventures at The Sunny-Side Up Kitchen.    |
| AHT Giveaway: New York Burger Map from All-You-Can-Eat Press Posted: 02 Jul 2013 11:42 AM PDT [Photograph: all-You-Can-Eat Press] All-You-Can-Eat Press, makers of the New York Doughnut Map, just came out with a new map for us beef-lovers: the New York Burger Map! The map features 41 of New York best burger destinations—including J.G. Melon, Shake Shack, two8two, The Little Owl, and Brindle Room, to name some of our favorites—and organizes them in a lovely fold-out map, along with burger descriptions and a burger history timeline. You can buy the New York Burger Map for $8 at allyoucaneatpress.com. They're also selling a burger postcard set for $6. Thanks to the generous folks at All-You-Can-Eat Press, we have five maps to give away to AHT'ers! For a chance to win, just answer in the comments: What other food maps would you most want to see? Contest will end and comments will close at 5 p.m. ET, Tuesday, July 9, 2013. One entry per community member. Five winners will be chosen at random. Winners may be located anywhere in the world. Standard Serious Eats contest rules apply. Love hamburgers? Then you'll Like AHT on Facebook! And go follow us on Twitter and Pinterest while you're at it!    |
| 5 Boston-Area Chinese Buffets That Are Actually Quite Tasty Posted: 02 Jul 2013 12:52 PM PDT Egg rolls, noodles, things on sticks and more! [Photographs: Kara Baskin] Chinese buffets can be the pinnacle of greasy gluttony or a truly perilous trap that causes sharp stomach pains and regret. All too often, lonesome envelopes of crab rangoon shimmer beneath heat lamps; mountains of lo mein quiver in steamed trays; and bowls of neon green ice cream melt side by side with mussels crowned with congealed cheese. But a Chinese buffet isn't always the provenance of the drunk or the desperate. A good Chinese buffet can be a glorious smorgasbord once one locates the redemptive dish: a pert dumpling here, a hefty egg roll there. The key is to hone in on what the buffet does best and load your plate accordingly (and repeatedly). Here's a cheat sheet. Changsho Peking ravioli Juicy mystery meat hugged by chewy dough, slick with soy: Changsho's Peking ravioli are just as they should be. Their buffet includes your choice of soup and a decent sushi selection, plus virtuous offerings like miso-glazed fish. The buffet also has the usual Kung Pao and General Gau's chicken, lo-mein, crackly spring rolls, and neon-pink spareribs, and so forth. Everything tastes fresh, and servers are quick to whisk your dish away as soon as you're ready for seconds. But despite the typical buffet array, it's the thick, puckered ravioli you really want. Bonus: They offer free parking, a Cambridge rarity. 1712 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, 617-547-6565 Biryani Park Sri Lankan-Indochine snacks This bright pink roadside shack on a grim stretch of highway in Malden is easy to miss. Once inside, however, you're rewarded with the aroma of incense and the kind of reverential service that makes you feel like you should leave a tip before even eating your food. On weekends, they offer a Sri Lankan-Indochine buffet. This isn't the classic gloopy buffet of your hungover dreams; instead, it's a medley of Asian flavors that borrows from India, Sri Lanka, and China. Gobi is the runaway hit: cauliflower cubes, marinated with curry leaves and deep fried, rendering the texture of General Gau's chicken and the lightness of popcorn. There's also vegetable or chicken fried rice, egg noodles sauteed with chili sauce, and aromatic egg drop soup. Chances are, if it's not on the buffet and you see it on the menu, the laid-back servers will kindly whip it up. (We asked for a strawberry smoothie on our visit to temper the spice, and it appeared 30 seconds later, with a smile.) Crucial hint: Ask for smoky tomato chutney on the side. 105 Broadway, Malden, 781-397-1307 Bamboo Fried things! The Westford outpost of a mini chain has a big, popular Sunday night buffet with plump, fresher-than-it-has-to-be sushi, plus all the Americanized Chinese specialties you know and love, from a slick kung pao chicken (miraculously uncluttered by celery) to enormous cauldrons of coconut shrimp. There are juicy Beijing ravioli with hints of ginger, mammoth lobster tails and claws, chicken swimming in pungent garlic sauce, and pillows of crab rangoon that actually taste of crab. Here, anything fried (chicken on skewers, lightly battered tempura, and so forth) is a must. Somehow, the kind folks at Bamboo manage to coat their proteins in a kind of delicate, crispy cloak that actually leaves the diner feeling pleasantly full, instead of bloated. The dining room is clean and bright, too, even if you do have to flag down your server for refills. 1 Lan Drive, Westford, 978-589-9666 Feng Shui Lo mein The people-watching is excellent at this Chelmsford buffet. The seemingly bottomless pit of lo mein is almost as spicy as the boisterous clientele, who include curious locals grateful for exotic food in the burbs and nearby office workers. Feng Shui's standout lo mein is mixed with a trace of garlicky, spicy mustard. It's remarkably clean and greaseless, with a healthy smattering of crunchy green peppers. Other worthwhile pursuits include flaky, greaseless scallion pancakes, sesame balls, deep-fried jumbo shrimp coated in a milky coconut sauce, and delicate green spinach dumplings that retain their structural integrity even after a few dunks in soy. 285 Chelmsford St., Chelmsford, 978-250-8888 China Blossom Egg rolls North Andover's China Blossom is the type of place your curious grandparents used to visit when they wanted something ethnic. Here you'll find French fries side by side with egg rolls, which stand like hopeful soldiers, propped up in a tray. These turgid little missiles really are the main reason to visit: crunchy, fat, doughy, and best dunked in spicy mustard. Waitresses have been here since the dawn of time and survey the scene with bemused expressions. You're mainly here for the ambiance and the eggrolls, but be sure to chomp into the deep-fried, blindingly golden, sneaker-sized chicken fingers, which function as a crunchy vehicle for the saucer of duck sauce the waitress will happily deposit on your table. 946 Osgood St., North Andover, 978-682-2242 MapView Chinese Buffets in a larger map. About the Author: Kara Baskin is a frequent contributor to The Boston Globe and writes Boston.com's Restaurant Hub. She's also the co-author of Size Matters: The Hard Facts About Male Sexuality That Every Woman Should Know. (Yes, there are food tips included in the book.) Visit her website and follow her on Twitter.    |
| 12 Red, White, and Blue Drinks for Independence Day Posted: 02 Jul 2013 10:54 AM PDT  VIEW SLIDESHOW: 12 Red, White, and Blue Drinks for Independence Day Whether you're spending the 4th of July at a barbecue, picnicking in a park, or relaxing on the beach, you're going to to need some refreshment. What better way to celebrate the day than mixing up a red, white, or blue beverage? (Or perhaps one or two of each?) Take a tour through the slideshow to find out more about some of our favorite color-coordinated July 4th cocktails and alcohol-free drinks, or jump straight to the recipes below. RedWhiteBlue    |
| Hot Kitchen Does Standout Sichuan in the East Village Posted: 02 Jul 2013 11:09 AM PDT Shredded Beef with spicy green pepper. [Photographs: Nick Solares] You know you are not in a generic "Chinese" restaurant when items like General Tso's chicken and Orange Flavor Beef are relegated to their own section on menu under the title "American Chinese Food." You will find these and other familiar members of the Chinese American canon dismissively situated, like the kid's section, in the back of the164 item menu at Hot Kitchen in the East Village. Craving Kung Bao chicken? You will find it on the lunch menu, but you will likely be frowned upon for requesting it at dinner. Hot Kitchen is as serious about the authenticity of its Sichuan cooking as its chilies are hot. And the restaurant lives up to its name through the liberal use of heat and spice. Take the Shredded Beef with Spicy Green Pepper ($14), a tangle of green peppers, shredded spears of ginger, and slivers of tender beef round. The heat starts off low and slow, allowing the flavor of the meat to come through before the ramping up to a fiery crescendo. It is one of the few dishes from the "proper" menu that is available as a lunch special. Order it and the waiter will compliment your choice, and not just because it cost a $1 more than the American Chinese offerings at $8.50 (comes with soup or soda and rice). Sichuan hot and sour soup. The Sichuan Hot and Sour Soup (small, pictured, $2.50; large $5) is no better than an average rendition. It's suitably viscous, not especially spicy, and it seems dumbed down for the lunch menu. Certainly it doesn't have anything adventurous in it like pig's blood. Spicy Sichuan dumplings. You are better off starting out with the Spicy Sichuan Dumplings ($6), tender ear-sized pockets stuffed with minced pork and served in an oily sauce laced with sichuan pepper. The flavor is raunchy and earthy with a pleasing heat. Sauteed pea shoots with fresh garlic, A heaping plate of just-wilted and wonderfully fresh pea shoots ($14) spiked with slivers of garlic offers some respite from the heat. Smoked tea duck. The Smoked Tea Duck ($19) comes with the sought-after crispy skin, properly rendered fat, and tender flesh. But the bird can attain a disconcerting acridity, as if the tea leaves are burned at too high a temperature. Dining room. Hot Kitchen is a stripped-down dining room, and the service can range from serviceable to friendly (ordering off of the the American Chinese menu will likely illicit the former reaction). Speaking of the American Chinese and lunch menus: they are clearly a compromise, and speak to the economic realities of operating a restaurant in the pricey East Village. Certainly the vision here is purer than that of Grand Sichuan on St. Marks, which offers a far more expansive and universal menu. And when it comes down to the Sichuan dishes, Hot Kitchen holds its own. About the author: Nick Solares is a NYC-based food writer and photographer. He has published Beef Aficionado since 2007, with the stated purpose of exploring American exceptionalism through the consumption of hamburgers and steak. He has written over 350 restaurant reviews for Serious Eats since 2008 and served as the creative director for the award-winning iPad app Pat LaFrieda's Big App for Meat. You can follow him on Instagram (@nicksolares) and Twitter (@beefaficionado).    |
| The Best Sweets We Ate in June Posted: 02 Jul 2013 10:01 AM PDT  VIEW SLIDESHOW: The Best Sweets We Ate in June No surprise, we ate a lot of ice cream this month. Some of it was homemade by an SE staffer, some of it incorporated sweet seasonal strawberries, and some was served in a teeny tiny cone. We also got our babka roll on, tried some pignoli cookies, and dug into the biggest kouign amann we've ever seen. See all these bites and more in the slideshow above! Want more of the sweet stuff? Don't forget to follow us on Pinterest!    |
| Raw Night at Arya Bhavan in Chicago Posted: 01 Jul 2013 09:09 AM PDT [Photographs: Lindsey Howald Patton] Arya Bhavan is just one of a fabulous jumble of Indian and Pakistani restaurants way, way, way north of Chicago's center, on a stretch of Devon Avenue in West Rogers Park. What made me notice Arya Bhavan among them? Something called Raw Night. Every Monday at Arya Bhavan, the buffet is stocked not with curries and samosas, but with fare that has never touched an oven rack or skillet. It's an Indian restaurant in all the other usual recognizable ways—warm taupe walls, instrumental Hindi-style music in the background, exotic decor—until you notice the sandwich board advertising a detox cleanse, or the kombucha and raw vegan avocado ice cream on the menu. The owner, Kirti Sheth, is a holistic foodie who started Raw Night a couple of years ago by popular demand. Everything at Arya Bhavan was already vegetarian, and much of it vegan, and when some of her customers said they were interested in a larger raw selection, Sheth happily obliged. I was the first to arrive at 6:30 p.m.; the restaurant had just opened, and the buffet was mine to peruse. My friends ordered from the regular menu, which follows a more classic Indian trajectory with naan, dosa, rice dishes, dal, curries and the like, but I was committed. (Fair warning: the kitchen didn't seem very prepared to handle cooked orders, so I'd keep that in mind if you go on a Monday.) Although buffet selections might vary, panning right to left on this particular evening, you had salads first: kale with shredded ginger, cabbage, sprouted legumes, turmeric-spiced cauliflower. Then came a few inventive dishes, which can only be explained using a lot of air quotes, like a raw "pizza" with an oat crust, cashew "cheese," sun-dried tomato "pizza sauce," and crunchy veggies. There were tiny "burritos" too: think a variety of vegetables wrapped in a collard leaf. There was a spiced savory vegetable "cake" that I liked enough to go back twice for more, consisting mostly of packed shredded carrots flecked with sunflower seeds. There was "hummus" of sprouted chickpeas (and little else; I couldn't detect any tahini or olive oil), and, in a launch into a different nation, a big bowl of guacamole accompanied by little tubs of fermented-cashew "sour cream." If you are following any type of special diet whatsoever, I don't think you'll find a place friendlier than this. Sheth, who bounced around between taking orders, prepping food in the the kitchen and attending the buffet, readily answered all sorts of questions by other diners when they began to arrive, and by listening in I discovered that the raw buffet is also gluten-free, dairy-free, and meat-free. On the down side, some of the dishes lacked the depth and range of flavor the restaurant's food is otherwise lauded for. Cooking, of course, was invented for this very reason, but I have seen raw food deliver where some of these dishes didn't. With the exception of that wonderful spicy carrot veggie cake, the "burrito" (which improved greatly when dipped in guacamole and cashew cream), the perfectly-seasoned sprouted lentil and bean salad, and—surprisingly enough—the satisfyingly chewy oat crust of the pizza, I found myself thinking too often, 'needs salt, too bitter, texture's off.' And it's pricy: $20 per person if you pay with a credit card, $18 with tax in cash. By the end, I certainly felt virtuous—even dessert was light and healthy, consisting of unsweetened coconut and almond balls and a simple "pudding" made of blended ripe mangos. But I was looking longingly at the last bites of my companions' steaming, flavorful, rich curries, fragrant brown rice and garlic-crusted naan, feeling thankful for whoever first thought of putting food to a hot flame. Arya Bhavan2508 West Devon Avenue, Chicago IL 60659 (map)    |
| Lunch Box: Make-Ahead Chimichurri Shrimp and Corn Salad Posted: 02 Jul 2013 09:24 AM PDT [Photograph: Suzanne Lehrer] I slather chimichurri on anything edible all year round, but corn is the perfect slatheree come summer. Swathed in the bright, herbal sauce, sweet corn, fennel, roasted peppers, and shrimp are gently elevated, without being overwhelmed. This salad is perfect at room temperature, and further improved the next day. Chimichurri becomes a different creature entirely after sitting overnight; more mellow and cohesive. This recipe is a little bit light on the oil to create a thicker sauce— more the mayonnaise to potato salad than the balsamic vinaigrette to mesclun greens. It will cling to the vegetables without running off or separating, infusing the entire salad with its bold flavor. Get The Recipe!Make-Ahead Chimichurri Shrimp and Corn Salad » About the Author: Suzanne Lehrer is a writer and recipe developer in New York and a recipe editor for Cooking Channel. When not curating her budding hot sauce collection, she puts her French Culinary Institute education to good use in kitchens all around town. Follow her recipes and cooking adventures at TheSuzChef.com and on twitter @the_suzchef. Get the Recipe!    |
| We Chat with Chef Lisa Giffen of Maison Premiere on Turning from Cook to Chef Posted: 01 Jul 2013 03:36 PM PDT "I was in New York and meeting all these people and restaurants, and it really started to feed the flame inside."Chef Lisa Giffen's background is deliciously mixed; adopted by American parents, she spent many childhood years living in Germany and eating very grown-up meals all over Europe. A stage at Prune and stints at Blue Hill, Daniel and Adour led her to Maison Premiere, where she helped with the opening menu and recently took over as executive chef of the fish-heavy kitchen and constantly packed oyster bar. And while the transfer wasn't completely out of the blue, the spotlight shift has been rather crazy, and she's now working on balancing building her menu with fuller, non-fish dishes with the press that's been streaming through her door. We had a chat over some of her new chicory iced coffee, and as you'll see at the end of this interview, found there are more than a few surprises ahead for Chef Giffen. You were working here as a cook before the promotion to chef. Did you feel ready? When you've been someplace since the start of a restaurant or their program, you have an idea in your mind of all the things you wish you could do and where you could go. So I think I was ready, even though it wasn't a planned out decision. What about this restaurant in particular made you confident that you could do it? Because I put so much effort into the beginning of opening it I was kind of just like, "Uh, what if the concept of the vision changes going forward?!" And the owners are very detail-oriented, high quality standard people, so I wasn't working with people who didn't know what they're doing. Turbot: seaweed, clams, chowder. What are your goals in making the menu more personally yours? I want to focus more on seasonality. This year we're working with more farmers upstate. We get our fish from everywhere—it's very hard if you're a seafood restaurant to only source New York State fish. So it's nice to get some ingredients that I'd like to highlight here. How does building a restaurant in Williamsburg differ from what you might do in Manhattan? I think price point is obviously one. But Williamsburg's evolved. I lived her three years ago and I don't think you would have had this type of establishment back then; people weren't ready for it. But now people have money to spend on a nice setting that is local, and everyone wants their "local" establishment. So I think it's a good thing that people already know it as their oyster bar and they're like," Oh, now we can have food!" You put items on the menu that you feel passionate about and then you hope that the people coming in like it. How do your family's roots fit into your menu? Well, I'm adopted, and both of my parents are from the Midwest. But I grew up in Europe so we were cooking American food but also traveling all over Europe, eating in Paris.... Sounds horrible! I know! But I actually hated it as a kid because I wanted to do what kids want to do; stay home and watch TV and play with my friends, you know? But of course I look back on it now and see the opportunity. Growing up was a great influence— my mom is a great cook and loves and is passionate about all types of cuisine. So it was never just one type of food. She had stacks of Gourmet magazines, and when we traveled we went to different types of restaurants that adults would go to. So she really influenced me in loving food and loving cooking. Our family was very centered around that. Oregon morels; bluepoint oysters, asparagus. Did you have an idea that this is what you would be doing? Because you were in business for a while, right? Yeah, I did, but I was advised to get a college education first. And I would never change the path I took, because things I learned about business, about management, about other parts of jobs besides the culinary world, have helped me now. What had changed that made you decide you wanted to go into food? The work that I was doing every day wasn't bad. I learned a lot about sales, customer service and interacting with people, which helped because when you're in a kitchen with your cooks and porters and vendors that's kind of your world. So I had learned how to be presentable with people and how to negotiate. But I knew it wasn't a job I wanted to do in five years, or ten years, or fifteen years. I was in New York and meeting all these people and restaurants, and it really started to feed the flame inside. Sepia Crudo: Yogurt, cucumber, black radish. Nowadays chefs are flooded with media inquiries and even diners just wanting to meet them when they come in. How have you been feeling with this now job outside of your job? I'd rather be in the kitchen, I know that! Ha, of course. But it brings recognition to the establishment to people who have never known about it. Obviously articles are a good way to get people in here, because there are so many restaurants in New York. So I think you have to do this stuff, it's just a matter of not jumping at every one so you don't overstretch yourself or lose the message of what you try to tell people. Anything you miss about not being the chef? Sometimes I miss the days of being a line cook where you focus on your one job and do it really well, and at the end of the day you know you're going in the next to do the same. It's definitely been a new challenge for me. But it's a lot about management. You know what you want to do with the food, but it's all aspects of managing labor and costs. I think people who want to be chefs should know that that's part of it, too. Do you feel now in the position to mentor younger chefs? I hope so. The team I have now is a bare-bones team. I'd love to get more people here on staff, but I think it's a good balance; there are a ton of chefs coming to Brooklyn or starting in Brooklyn, and a lot of places to live and work here. There are people that want to learn more from the chef they're working with and be a part of the menu process. I think you want to provide that, and inspire people to want to work and stay. You don't have to babysit everyone every single time when you inspire them with, "This is the way you don't do it. Don't you want to do it this way?" You watch them less and feel more confident in what they're doing. What is unique about what you get to cook here? Because it's seafood-oriented we get a lot of fun stuff. We get live sea urchin—like, a lot. We get live abalone. We get all these things that a lot of cooks might only get to see on YouTube. I don't want to be someone who serves "weird" seafood— like we'll look for weird seafood and put it on the menu— but the fact that we can focus on those type of items and highlight things that people maybe wouldn't order is an exciting thing for me and it stretches my imagination a bit. About the author: Jacqueline Raposo writes about people who make food and cooks things now and then for her bread and butter. Read more at www.WordsFoodArt.com or tweet excessively with her at @WordsFoodArt.    |
| A Hamburger Tuesday: Bacon-Stuffed, Pastrami, Wasabi Sliders, and More Posted: 02 Jul 2013 07:18 AM PDT  VIEW SLIDESHOW: A Hamburger Tuesday: Bacon-Stuffed, Pastrami, Wasabi Sliders, and More We've got loads of homemade burgers—17 submissions!—for this inaugural installment of A Hamburger Tuesday (aka, the burger version of My Pie Monday). Check out what your fellow AHT'ers are making at home by clicking through the slideshow » Want to share your homemade burgers on AHT? We want to see them! All we need from you is a photo of the burger, a description of the burger, and your name. Head over here for complete submission details » Looking for inspiration this upcoming holiday weekend? Check out our 2013 Serious Eats Guide to Grilling Burgers. For next week's A Hamburger Tuesday, we're take submissions until Monday, July 8. About the author: Robyn Lee is the editor of A Hamburger Today and takes many of the photos for Serious Eats. She'll also doodle cute stuff when necessary. Read more from Robyn at her personal food blog, The Girl Who Ate Everything. Love hamburgers? Then you'll Like AHT on Facebook! And go follow us on Twitter and Pinterest while you're at it!    |
| Kraft's Inside Out Cheeseburger Posted: 02 Jul 2013 08:33 AM PDT This is an advertorial paid for by an advertiser; the contents of this post were provided by our advertising partner. Read more about our advertising policy here. Say hello to a whole new kind of burger, the Inside Out Cheeseburger. It's two beef patties stuffed with Kraft Singles and grilled to melty, ooey gooey perfection. This is one summertime sizzler that's sure to satisfy. Check out the video below! What You Need 1 lb. lean ground beef Make It Heat grill to medium-high heat. Shape meat into 8 (1/4-inch thick) patties. Top each of 4 patties with 4 Singles pieces; cover with remaining patties. Pinch edges together to seal. Grill burgers and onions 6 to 7 min. on each side or until burgers are done (160ºF) and onions are tender. Fill buns with burgers and remaining ingredients. Kraft Kitchens Tips Note Substitute Substitute    |
| The Best American Ciders in Cans Posted: 02 Jul 2013 08:14 AM PDT [Photographs: Chris Lehault] Simplicity is the cardinal rule of summer drinking. These warmer months are the time to trade complicated cocktails for simple highballs, and fill a bucket with ice and your favorite lawnmower beer. For cider lovers, it's time to set complex barrel-aged ciders aside and reach for something a bit more easy-going. And if you combine this tippling mentality with long days spent hiking a trail, barefoot on the beach, or just relaxing in the backyard, cider that comes in cans is the way to go. Our last look at canned ciders on the American landscape (here) was downright disappointing. Most of the ciders were imported and full of additives, chemicals, and sugar. But more American cider makers have taken a note from the craft beer movement and caught the canning bug this year. The result is a wide array of American-made ciders in easy-to-tote cans. Here are our favorites. Canned Ciders on the Sweet SideSweet ciders tend to be a bit more "apple-y" than dry ones, with lower tannins for easy drinking. They're ideal for those just starting to explore cider. But watch out! If a cider is too sweet it can be cloying at warmer temperatures. Here are our favorites that strike the right balance: Jack's Hard Cider Helen's Blend (Hauser Estate Winery, PA) Hey East Coasters, if you're in search of a canned artisan cider, your best bet is Helen's Blend from Pennsylvania's Jack's Hard Cider. Helen's is the sweeter offering from this winery whose apple roots go back to their patriarch, John S. Musselman of Musselman's Apple Sauce. Helen's Blend is made from 100% fresh pressed apples (a rarer ingredient than you'd think.) It has big fruit flavors complemented by an almost caramel-like sweetness. A bit of earthiness in the aroma and hints of apricot in the finish keep things interesting. The BrightCider (2 Towns Ciderhouse, OR) The West Coast is amidst a cider explosion right now with new cideries—including some that sell ciders in cans—popping up almost every month. But 2 Towns Ciderhouse has been crafting their tasty cider for years, and their new cans should be rolling off the line any day now. This semi-sweet offering also uses only fresh pressed apples (sourced from the Northwest.) It's easy-drinking, full of green apple flavors with some tropical flourishes and a balanced acidity. Angry Orchard Apple Ginger (Boston Beer Company, MA) Woodchuck Amber (Made in Vermont, owned by C&C Group, Ireland) Canned Ciders on the Dry SideThese canned ciders carry all of the complexity of their big-bottle counterparts with the added bonus of portability. While none of these offerings are completely bone-dry, they will fare better than sweet ciders at warmer temps and pack a bit more complexity beyond dominant apple notes. These ciders will find favor with saison or Champagne lovers, and complement simple preparations of summer produce. Hard Apple (Vander Mill, MI) Draft Hard Cider (Uncle John's Fruit House Winery, MI) Jack's Hard Cider Original (Hauser Estate Winery, PA) Fruit Ciders in CansThese cider producers are working with fruit beyond just apples. In general, fruit ciders tend to be on the sweet side, but there's no rule that says they can't be dry. Each of these ciders is worth exploring on its own—but all of them pair well with a cold scoop of vanilla ice cream. Blue Gold (Vander Mill, MI) Ciderboys Magic Apple (Steven's Point Brewery, WI) About the author: Christopher Lehault is a New Jersey based homebrewer, cider evangelist and craft beer documentarian. Follow his cider adventures on Facebook or twitter at @bittersharp. More Cider on Serious Eats6 American Ciders for Hop Heads    |
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