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skinny sez yum yum
NYTimes $25 and Under reviews Uminoie (86 East Third Street; 646-654-1122):
Mutsumi Tanaka and Mika Okui opened this unassuming spot in January without a day of professional kitchen experience between them. The women, both in their 20's, cook, act as hostesses and wash dishes behind a five-seat bar — not unlike an island counter flanked by stools in a home kitchen — that is the focal point of the narrow, sparsely appointed space.
Uminoie serves an idiosyncratic blend of food cooked in the style of Goto Island, west of Nagasaki, where Ms. Tanaka grew up, and in the style of Ms. Okui's mother, who is from Tokyo. Goto's cuisine is distinguished by the use of ago-dashi, a broth made by briefly simmering dried flying fish, in lieu of ichiban-dashi, the dried bonito and kelp stock commonly used in Japanese cooking.
Portions are generally small, and the menu is not divided into courses. You are encouraged to linger, to drink and to order at a leisurely pace, as is the custom at an uminoie, a casual beachside restaurant and bar.
Dishes from Goto and nightly specials are the best bets. Goto udon ($8) showcases the sweet, delicate flavor of ago-dashi in a simple soup of hand-cut udon noodles made by Ms. Tanaka's father on Goto. The creamy curd of a rolled omelet infused with ago-dashi ($8) called to mind another fish and egg combo, slow-cooked eggs with caviar. Nikujyaga ($5), beef stewed in ago-dashi with onions, potatoes and carrots, has an elusive and alluring sweetness that hints at mirin or miso.
Prodded for its secrets, the kitchen coyly offered that the stew contained "other Japanese flavors" in the manner in which home cooks "accidentally" omit an ingredient when passing on recipes.
BEST DISHES Goto udon; dashimaki-tamago (rolled omelet); nikujyaga (beef stew); kakuni (pork belly); stuffed peppers; gyoza.
SOME stories are simply too improbable to be made up. Here's one: In 1770, the French secretly sent a one-armed amateur botanist named Pierre Poivre -- yes, Peter Pepper -- to the Moluccas, hoping to alter the balance of power by breaking the Dutch stranglehold on a strategic commodity, nutmeg. (Well, two commodities, technically, since mace is made from the membrane that surrounds the flesh inside the fruit of the nutmeg tree.) The plan was almost foiled when some rebellious islanders thought the French might be a Dutch raiding party, but in the end Poivre managed to bring 20,000 nutmeg plants, along with a few hundred clove seedlings, back to Paris to be planted in the Jardin du Roi.
lugers is bunk (skinny)
RIP ancel keys - dead at 100 "eat well and stay well"
"The K Ration, named for him, was originally made up of items from a Minneapolis grocery store -- hard biscuits, dry sausage, hard candy and chocolate."
"That "Seven Countries Study" provided evidence that a diet rich in vegetables, fruit, pasta, bread and olive oil and sparing of meat, eggs, butter and dairy products reduces the occurrence of heart disease."
From Gawker, a report that makes me want to check out Freemans:
Freemans tuesday night the 16th of nov. the bush twins along with 2 massive secret service men tried to have dinner they were told by the maitre 'd that they were full and would be for the next 4 years upon hearing the entire restaurant cheered and did a round of shots it was amazing!!!
skinnys skin last nite loved the hen of the woods mushrooms (sauted in butter oil onion chicken stock and beef/veal demi-glaze), the response was "yum" in his native garbled tongue as he went back and forth from mommy to daddy for bites.........he loves middle eastern food (lots of "yum yum's" , and a sirlion burger / 99 conterno barolo combo got the highly coverted "yum yum yum" response (for the wine), hearby know as the 3 yum award..........lets hope he stays on this path, (skinny)
serious about snacks
6 lb 1040 page cookbook
I bought about 50 beautiful tomatoes in ‘the country’ last weekend ($8 total, including the basket! The farm stand is unattended and one pays by leaving money in a milk pail. But as I was counting my crumpled dollar bills I could feel the farmer’s eyes on me from a distance. I decided to leave 10 – after all the basket was included - and sure enough as we were driving away I saw the farmer walking toward the stand, probably about to go count the money. Or am I just a paranoid New Yorker?). I spent part of Monday chopping sautéing and canning. I was thinking, as I stirred, about my grandmother. Would she be disappointed to know that ‘canning’ these days’ means carefully pouring into “ziploc” bags (which probably cost me more than the tomatoes)?
For me, Summer comes to a close at the end of tomato season. (And I see bill is ready for the Fall pig roast).
Fine whine
In retrospect, it seems that Parker was doing to wine what Bill James was doing to baseball in the same years, and in the same way. Both Parker and James began, in the late seventies, as unknown amateurs with privately printed newsletters, rapidly found a hungry and enthusiastic audience, and by the mid-eighties had become the reigning authorities among people impatient with the old wisdoms.
71 Clinton keeps it's 2 stars:
It has evolved since then, when William Grimes gave it two stars in The New York Times, and so has its setting. In that prettified picture, 71 Clinton now stands as a testament to how much a trailblazing restaurant can do for a neighborhood — and to a restaurant's ability to please and prosper on the far side of the initial hype.
seems appropriate that lizzie grubman would be representing fatburger on the east coast. first stop, jersey city.
You don't support Democrats. Why should your ketchup?
Okay, the Whole Foods guy sounds smart, but this my friends is pure genius: Krispy Kreme doughnut drink. Pure evil genius that is.
Fast Company article on Whole Foods CEO John Mackey
Over three months, he gave himself a solo tutorial on modern factory farming. "I read a dozen books about how animals are raised in this country," he says, "going all the way back to Peter Singer's Animal Liberation in 1975. The more I read, the more I was interested in it. I said, Damn, these people are right. This is terrible."Is this guy insane?
Mackey did two things. He changed his vegetarian diet to vegan (he no longer eats food produced from animals, including dairy products). And he sent Ornelas an email telling her she was right -- not just about ducks, but about chickens, pigs, and cows. Mackey wrote that Whole Foods would immediately begin using its influence and buying power to demand that the meat it sells comes from animals that have been treated with a measure of dignity before being slaughtered. He invited Ornelas to help.
Sitting in his office in 2004, he says without hesitation, "Twenty years from now, factory farms will be illegal in the United States."I, for one, welcome our 87,000 square foot LES natural food overlords.
drink red wine for longer healthier life