It's The Barbecue Issue!!! Part One

Every one's thoughts turn to the outdoors when Memorial Day rolls around on the calendar. it's not the clear blue sky and balmy temps that 's the lure but the grill. It's barbecue season, with all the fun  and good food that come with it.It's time to leave a hot kitchen for a cool  grill.

The New York Times Food section covered all things related to it in today's issue. It's a keeper . especially for those planning on a big barbecue this weekend. One of the best articles is by regular contributor, Sam Sifton. He explains the basic, starting with the most basic - the fire.He parses the difference between direct heat (perfect for hamburgers) and indirect heat( good for slower cooking meats). There is also a how too about creating both on the same grill, whether it's a gas or charcoal fueled one. He then explains how meats from chicken to seafood to pork, beef and lamb, should be prepared and cooked. Mr Sifton recommends novice  grillers to go with the easiest - chicken. There are also tips on  on grilling all the meats along with how to prepare different types such as chicken breasts, shrimp and hamburgers. Melissa Clark gives a how to on how to roast an entire chicken outside.It's actually done in a skillet placed on the grill.One of the best things about cooking this way is that the drippings get saved as opposed to being dissipated . They can be used to saute sides. Ms. Clark uses it to saute spinach spiked with garlic and anchovies. Home chefs can vary the greens with ramps or chard.

Of course veggies are an important part of the cookout . John Willoughby and Chris Scheslinger wrote about the side side of barbecuing. Vegetables are surprisingly good for grilling. They grow tender without losing their flavor and can retain it days afterwards in the fridge.Both Mr. Willoughby and Mr. Scheslinger recommend bell peppers,eggplants and tomatoes. Even lemon and lime slices can be grilled, their juices lending some smokiness to dipping sauces.There is a smoky chimichurri sauce recipe that would be great with any grilled steak. Home chefs have to try the  recipe for red onion chutney that takes the grilled alliums to another level,thanks to brown sugar and a melange of spices that include chili and cumin. Chefs around the country are also on this grill anything bandwagon too.Another Food regular, Jeff Gordonier traveled around the country to see what professional cooks are throwing over the coals.There are glazed grilled carrots that are cooked first and then tossed into a dressing.Onions can be charcoal cooked  so their middles become creamy, savory puddings  while hunks of olive oil soaked bread can be tossed on the grill to  become toasty and smoky.Oranges can be cut and place don skewers to be toasted into chips.Anything can be used in a barbecue, a great idea for chefs who may be running low on food and ingredients.

Today's New York Times Food section will help any home chef  deal with grilling . There is some great advice that will work for  this year and for seasons to come. Save the section. It's truly invaluable

The Savory Allure of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh is known for many things, Steel, bridges, Universities. Food isn't one of them. Yet in the few years this famed city may well become the Lyons of America. It is the hottest and most popular destination for foodies right now,surpassing even Manhattan for good restaurants.

Jeff Gordonier wrote about it in today's New York Times Food section. He visited the city known for Carnegie Steel and Carnegie Mellon University.The vibe of the city is changing. There are still marginalized areas however the town on the whole is on the upswing. Companies like Google, Uber and Facebook have relocated there, trying to scoop up  the latest tech grads from the city's major universities such as Carnegie Mellon Duquesne and a slew of several others. Another reason is that
 real estate is very cheap.Old storefronts  are now being turned into trendy eateries thanks to  chefs who can afford to  buy the property.It also helps to have good press. Zagat named Pittsburgh the number one food city in the country while Vogue proclaimed it a happening place to visit, even stating that New Yorkers are toying with the idea of moving there.. For chefs, though, there was
still  the problem of crime. Justin Severino who started Cure in the Lawrenceville section had to deal with prostitutes drug dealers and thieves. He stuck in there, though now  offering a trendy menu that has a tasting menu and salumi dishes.

Other chefs are following his lead, despite the fact that some  fo the older townspeople find the new dishes not to their liking or too foreign. Still ,many are adaptable enjoying  dishes  as wild boar and rabbit at eateries such as  Piccolo Forno, thanks to the culinary deftness of chef Dominic Branduzzi.Then there is a new concept, created by two young entrepreneurs, Ben Marica and Tyler Benson. These former Navy men have brought a kind of tech incubator to Pittsburgh's food scene. Their Smallman Galley consists of four kiosks in which different chefs showcase their their cooking for eighteen months. The neat part is the chefs pay absolutely no rent, The goal is to acquire a following and then go from there with it .. The creators see this as a way of catering to the young techies from Google and Uber who are also living in the area.It is a great symbiotic relationship guaranteed to boost Pittsburgh's standing and economy. However there are some chefs who have seen this happen before, namely in Brooklyn and San Francisco. The more popular a neighborhood gets, the more expensive it will be Rents rise , people move out , businesses either struggle or close.Others say give it five years and then see if Puttsburgh is still thriving according to Chef Severino of Cure.

Right now Pittsburgh is experiencing an explosion of good chefs and good restaurants, It's shedding its' old grey steel town image for a newer, more vibrant one,Will it be the Lyons of the New World? Quite possibly yes!

African American Cooking Reimagined

African American cooking is not just soul food. It's much more, taken from the two hundred year old disapora that ripped Africans from their countries and roots.Native foods came with them, forever altering American tastes and dishes. Now there is a movement to bring those flavors to  current dining trends.

Regular contributor to the Wednesday Times Food section, Jeff Gordonier wrote an extensive piece on this. There is a new generation of African American chefs that are fusing history and imagination to create dishes that go beyond the typical soul food marriages of cornbread and barbecue or collard greens with ribs.There might be collard greens but they're reimagined  cooked Japanese style with a coating of sesame dressing. This is what Nicole A Taylor did to them in her new cookbook " The Up South Cookbook. There is also more embracing of original vegetables such as eggplant and peanuts, along with spicing, reminiscent of West African spice markets..African cooking is not taught or just ignored in the Euro centric cooking schools.Many chefs have to take their own trips to countries such as Ghana or Nigeria to acquire recipes or base theirs on older ones.

What about soul food? It's there and many chefs will cook it. It's origins are from the farm, with the mantra  "If it grows, together then it goes together."However it does get a fine tuning. Creole Shrimp and grits get a California zing with sweated vegetables at Brown Sugar Kitchen in Oakland,CA.Chef Tanya Holland keeps the richness but adds some baby spinach and cumin for a healthy kick. Some newer soul food restaurants will smoke pork belly on site as well as having shrimp that comes from Baja California as opposed to the Gulf of Mexico. Many chefs make regular visits to their local farmer's markets for the same freshness that 19th and earlier 20th Century  home chefs incorporated in their dishes. For years these dishes were either dismissed or lost  because they were deemed unimportant yet real soul food is healthy and flavorful,It's also a link to the West African countries that served as their basis.

African American cooking and West African foods have contributed so much to American culinary scene, It is finally being celebrated in many delicious ways. It's about time

Fishing For Something Tasty

With all these holidays a happening it's nice to try something more refreshing like fish. Unfortunately most home chefs stick with the familiar, salmon, tuna, and cod. Some adventurous home chefs will try a bluefish or striper that caught by a friend or neighbor  however that's the extent of it. Yet there are some other types out there that might be worth considering.

Jeff Gordonier wrote about this in last Wednesday's New York Times Food section.(I had wanted to write about this earlier but got waylaid by Christmas and all the good food and recipes that come with it). Most fish have been over eaten and overfished by us  which leads to screwing up the ocean's environment. Not only do we live by the aforementioned species. we also gobble down way too much - close to 85 percent. shrimp, followed by pollock and tilapia.It;s time to try the lesser known  fish and many chef's across the country are doing just that.Many of them are looking to their child
hood fishing trips with dad or grandpa for inspiration. At Rose's Fine Foods in Detroit, the traditional Great Lakes Fish Fry is made, using a pan fried lobe of brook trout with a large blueberry pancake, a nod to the blueberry pies served as dessert at lake front fries. The trout along with the lesser used bluegill and smaller fish is what the chefs, cousins, Lucy de Parry and Molly Mitchell serve. Chef Michael Psilakis uses the porgies he grew up with in his restaurant MP Taverna.He cooks them in the delectable Greek style with lemon and herbs. He also cooks whitebait, a fish he and his dad used to catch , keeping them fresh n seawater and then dredging them in flour before a quick fry up

Some fish can be downright exotic. Home chef's should not worry about this though. The end result is still a tasty dish., this  philosophy,  make the Village island themed restaurant Norman's Cay popular. Chef and owner Ryan Chadwick takes the demon of Caribbean waters, the lionfish , removes it's venomous spines and the simply grills it in oil. It even has a following, so much so that there is a supply problem with them. Chaya, a trendy Los Angeles Japanese restaurant is where
 outliers and the exotic reign . Their sashimi is made from beltfish and  red cornet, standing in for the over fished cod. another Los Angeles Japanese restaurant N/naka , chef Niki Nakayama sources local California waters for the elaborate and traditional Japanese ten course tasting meal, kaiseki. SoCal's Huntington Beach's Slapfish offers just that  - slapfish, in the most common of dishes  - fish and chips; entrepreneur and chef Andrew Gruel  wants to take other lesser known fish such as hoki, a fish in the hake family and California rockfish, a prehistoric looking creature with Betty Boop eyes and make them more common than scrod.
.More and more of these exotic local beauties will be coming to a fish market nearby thanks to Dock To Dish, a coast to coast organization that helps fishermen come to chefs with lesser known species. This proves to be a boon to those on a budget.because these are usually cheaper than their more popular cousins.,

Treat yourself to lighter fare with the more cost effective lesser known seafood. You'll get to experiment with different varieties of fish. any of these work perfectly in tried and true dishes.

Vegans Gone Glam

Vegans usually get a bad rap. They're either thought of crunchy granola types or ditzy Hollywood stars who eat nothing but lettuce leaves and avocados. There is a happy medium thanks to a Malibu couple that's giving the lifestyle a much needed boost. It's not only good for you ,it's also glam.

Jeff Gordonier of the New York Times Food section got to interview and eat with glam vegans Julie Piatt and Rich Roll in their Malibu , California home.Going meatless now is going mainstream. There are famed vegan restaurants on both coasts.and more and more people are embracing plant based diets.it's not dowdy any more . There's a sexiness and brightness to it with the promise of looking younger and having better skin without any surgery, serums or creams.One Britsh blogger, Ella Woodward claims it cleared up her skin as well as improved her health. For those who want to start glowing and cooking this way there are several good books to chose from such as Mr. Roll's The Plantpower Way, Deliciously Ella,My New Roots and The Lookbook Cookbook. It may take family members some time to embrace it. Most think non meat eating is strips of tasteless tofu over brown rice or mashed yeast. It's so much ore than that.

Maybe the best way to acclimate family and friends into this lifestyle is taking them to vegan restaurants. New York has some good ones, in particular Dirt Candy.Amanda Cohen , its owner worries about the faddishness of the movement however eating at her restaurant may change that.Her Portobello mousse will definitely be an American classic along with her broccoli dogs with broccoli kraut.Veggie burgers usually don't get a following however chef Chloe Coscarelli makes that happen, Her variety of tempeh burgers is getting their own fan base at her SoHo eatery thanks to her blend of different grains and spices made into a patty. Home chefs can easily copy this however remember that the ingredients are somewhat more costlier than beef. As Chef Cohen points out , going vegan is not cheap."It's not for peasants." she declares. Home chefs can start off with the pocketbook friendly Morningstar Farms brand of vegan foods. They have a good array of veggie burgers, fake nuggets, bacon and hot dogs. Buy different canned beans from Goya. These can be made into everything from burgers to casseroles.

The Roll family is on the right track with vegan eating. It gives them a boost while they give it glam. It's not a fad anymore. It's a lifestyle choice with very good benefits.

Lower Manhattan The New Food Hub

Manhattan is going to be THE destination for many local and foreign visitors.A lot go for the sites , most come for the city's wide variety of eateries and various cuisines. There's a new stop, lower Manhattan. The Wall Street and Tribeca areas are abuzz with all sorts of new restaurants and innovative chefs. Plan to spend a few meals down in this new culinary hub.

Jeff Gordonier not only was able to write about it but also visit some of the up and coming places and sample their best dishes. His article in today's New York Times Food section is a complete guide for navigating the various eateries and watering holes of the lowermost tip of Manhattan Island. For meat and French cuisine lovers there is Le District , the French themed market that offers up rotisserie and charcuterie meats. For those love who love the famed Spotted Pig, its' owners, April Bloomfield and Krn Friedman are planning a mega restaurant that will take up four (!) stories of an apartment complex on Pine Street, around the corner from famed Trinity Church.Odeon ,a staple of lower Manhattan has added breakfast to its' menu , making it vastly popular with the Conde Nast gang who have recently moved into the new World Trade building.The prices are still the same, high but worth it, especially their Croque Monsieur and all natural strip steak.Plus the Odeon has a history , going back four decades to Manhattan's Disco and Eighties Wall Street eras.

The area , once reserved to just handling the world's business and trading, now is a thriving community. Office workers in the area are hanging around instead of heading home. This means a growing need for both bars and eateries. Some eateries get as many as 200 people for lunch alone according to Kevin Richter, general manager at the North End Grill. Weekends can see  as high as 1,300 customers.It does help though to have customers such as the famed Graydon Carter, and a few of Bon Appetit's major editors like Andrew Knowlton (This last helps tremendously since sooner or later the eateries will be featured in the magazine).Hopefully the area doesn't pick up the glitzy and superficial aura of nearby Soho which now feels like Rodeo Drive East. One restaurant , Little Park seems to be picking this up, being a morning roost for local editors as one , Tatiana Boncompagni of Self has noticed. The real test will be when Bobby Flay or Lidia Bastianich discover Wall Street and decided to insinuate their restaurants around Trinity Church and the American Indian Museum. will they survive amongst the trendy crowd or be snubbed in favor of New York's latest restaurant.

If you're visiting Manhattan this summer, stop for a bite at its' lower most tip. Try the French faves at Odeon or head over to Little Park  for breakfast. Enjoy this latest food hub.

Northern Cuisine

There 's a new regional cuisine that's making itself known - it's the Northern style.This is a reflection and blend of Canadian and New England recipes and flavors. Unlike Southern cooking, there is a crispness and sharpness to it; ,a more primal feel like the rugged Northern landscape itself

Jeff Gordonier wrote about it in today's New York Times Food section.He interviewed the innovators of this interesting and varied  as well as trying the different dishes that make up the foods served from Canada and the New England corridor.It is not what people think, especially when it comes to  Bostonian cuisine. This is usually misrepresented, according to Boston chef , Matt Jennings, who is also with the group Northern Chefs Alliance.It's not just creamy chowders and the standard baked beans, He does put chowder on his menu but its' perked up with black Squid ink crackers. Even Boston brown bread which is served at every table is punched up with maple butter and the Korean soybean paste doenjang The wildness of the Great North is also represented throughout this vast region. Foods that the indigenous people first caught , through crude hinting and fishing, are turned into haute cuisine fancies.These are deer kidneys and cod collars- fish throats.along with   Canadian dwarf cornel berries-  a kind of cross between a lingonberries and cherries, and Labrador tea jelly made from a kind of  mountain rhododendron. These come from  nature and not a downtown  farmer's market. Foods are cooked over fires kindled from wood found on beaches or in forests.

 Many recipes reflect the micro local bounty.This is true at Boralia a Toronto restaurant, owned by husband and wife team Wayne Morris and Evelyn Wu who go foraging locally for their restaurant's ingredients.They even use variations of recipes that the French explorers brought with them back in t the early 1600's such as eclade , mussels blanketed in dried pine needles. Their updated version involves a pine  ash infused butter. Some restaurants will serve freshly shot moose, arctic hare and partridge at one restaurant Raymond's. This is not regulated meat, in fact some dishes come with a warning as to watch out for the buckshor or you'll wind up with chipped. teeth.Local seaweeds are  such as dulse, lavar kombu and sea lettuce are incorporated in both  main and side dishes.Some of the traditional European recipes like the ones served at the Montreal eatery Maison Publique rely on these wild ingredients to fuse the new world with the old.Their Spanish dish  boquerones usually made with anchovies is now made with capelin, a North Atlantic bait fish.it gives the dish a rawer , taste that reflects the roughness of this untamed country.

Northern cuisine is a cuisine of wind, rock and wood as some chefs have deemed it.It is a rugged blend of sean and leand ,Old world and New.It is the food of wildness but also the food of great sophistication..

Vegan Dining Respun

Vegetarian dining is always often greeted with an upturned nose or a sneer. Many think it's a variety of tofu or veggie dishes done wrong. However in the last twenty to twenty five years meat and dairy free dining has taken on a more haute cuisine demeanor. A new generation of chefs is taking ordinary veggies to a whole new level of eating.

This is the case of chef Amanda Cohen , famed creator of the trendy lower East Side  restaurant Dirt Candy. She and the recently updated eatery were profiled in today's New York Times Wednesday Food section. The article was written by Food regular Jeff Gordonier  and it explored different aspects of vegetarian cooking, It is not the menu of deprivation with a stern lecture about saving  the    planet. Instead it's a celebration of all things green. CHef Cohen cooks with butter cream and eggs too, something most vegetarian chefs shun, (dishes at Dirt Candy can be prepared two ways, one with animal based ingredients and without them for the truly vegan). She also has her ingredients delivered to her  as she has  no time to visit Manhattan's many farmer's markets. They're not all organic but they are accessible and something her fans can recreate at home.

Vegetarianism has always been a North Star in Chef Cohen's life. she turned to it when she was a Toronto teenager(although she harbored a soft spot for oysters and breaded sweetbreads). Dirt Candy was created because she became tired of the usual , dull and depressing veggie platters most restaurants reserve for non meat eaters.At first she turned to the great chef Charlie Trotters' cookbook about vegetables for inspiration.It paid off. There is the portobello mousse, carrots that are pickled and jerked and then served with a Memphis barbecue.There is even a vegetable ice cream salad.Mr. Gordonier even includes a flavor bomb recipe from her. Its a frozen cube of cilantro,parsley , Thai basil along with spinach , garlic and peeled ginger. The greens are then blanched and then put into an ice bath.The greens are then pureed and poured into an ice cube tray. Use the frozen blocks in stir fry or just for reheated rice,It can even work well with any meat or seafood too.

Vegetarian cuisine has been turned up a notch thanks to innovative chefs like Amanda Cohen. Veggies are not only revered , they're reimagined into new dishes..It's achance to rethink the belief of only eating greens.

Puerto Rico A Farm To Table Paradise

Puerto Rico is a lush island, with a heritage of fresh fruits and vegetables. Surprisingly it's only now that island chefs are using this bounty. It  is a rich one, teeming with all sorts of varieties. Luckily there is a fresh food movement there that is using this chef's treasure trove.

Regular contributor , Jeff Gordonier , wrote about this in yesterday's New York Times Wednesday Food section. Mr. Gordomier was lucky enough to leave a cold New York  and visit Vieques, Puerto Rico a tiny island directly east of the main one. Vieques is known mostly for the US Navy's bombing ground and an off the beaten path vacation spot. However it is also the home of  el Blok,  a laid back beach hotel and farm to table restaurant. The 'owner Jose Enrique is also  a leader of a loosely knit band of  Puerto Rican cooks, activists and farmers  who came to the same idea that these islands are chock full of fresh fruits and veggies along with endless herbs .Many restaurants  such as Parcela Gastropub, Marmalade and the eatery with Mr. Enrique's name are pushing this tote bag to table thinking. This shouldn't be a new movement yet it is, thanks to the US's involvement in Puerto Rico' s farming industry . Thanks to Operation Bootstrap in the Post war 1940;s island farming was shut down and industry was encouraged..It did create a much needed middle class however it also meant a seismic shift away from the agrarian heritage that influenced Puerto Rican cuisine. Everything now was coming from farms in California and Ohio, as opposed to the gardens just in the neighborhood. Veggies and fruits were expensive too and did not always arrive fresh

Luckily this is all changing, as the world rediscovers locovore dining. El Departmento de la Comida was born four and a half years ago.Local organic produce are now being brought in from private pinprick gardens and farms to a warehouse in the main city.where it is resold to local restaurants and cafes.. Many may be surprised to learn that the island can yield up broccoli, carrots, okra and zucchini along with tarragon and dill. Puerto Rico is also known for coffee, in fact most of Europe drank coffee that came from the island's coffee farms. A new generation of chefs is discovering Puerto Rico's rich green bounty  and they are changing the oft dull and trite dishes such as tostones and mofungo. Fresh butterflied  snapper is on the menu at Mr. enriques where diners are often seated next to the fisherman who caught it. Oysters , normally not associated with island cuisine are now hot thanks to this movement Pork chops are drizzled in fresh sugar cane juice while dessert could be a ball of fresh made guava ice made with just picked fruit.It's different and much healthier than the usual fried fare sometimes associated with Puerto Rican cuisine.

The locovore movement is helping this bounteous island, known as the rich port to discover its' fruits and vegetables. The cuisine is going back to its agrarian roots where fresh veggies and fruits made up the menu.It's a refreshing embrace to the past and the future too.

Prime Rib Return Of A Classic

Many classic foods are making big comebacks, thanks to younger chefs and home chefs discovering them .This is the case with prime rib.It's starting to be seen both  in restaurants and dining rooms. Once, relegated to fancy affairs it's becoming a part of the American diet again.

Jeff Gordonier explored this in today 's New York Times Wednesday Food section  Once the star of Sunday roasts, it's been associated with weddings and bar mitzvahs. This is the year for it to come back into its own.Prime rib is already being seen in some of Manhattan's best restaurants such as Cherche Midi. The cut itself is stunning, a true roast with a photogenic and seductive look. It has a ruby red eye in its' center surrounded by a tender melt in your mouth meat. The exterior is a crisp rind of fat and salt, the perfect crust.There is also the plus of gnawing the bone, satisfying any Paleo urges.The meat should be aged 120 days before cooking so it has , as Mr. Gordonier puts it"a beautiful blue cheese funk about it."Prime rib is   usually served with Yorkshire pudding, as it has for centuries in Britain. This is the forebear of our popover, and started as a runny batter  to collect the cut's juices.

Both are easy to make. If  you have a fireplace you can roast the meat the original way.It does require a hook that will hold the string wrapped around the meat.You're going to have to check antique shops or even Etsy for meat hooks. They may have a comeback thanks to the cut  but stores like Williams and Sonoma and Sur la Table have yet to pick up on this trend . You can cook prime rib in an oven  usually for two hours  after an initial browning of 15 minutes at 500 degrees Farenheit Many chefs like to marinade the meat.The Lafayette Restaurant in New York preps the meat with packing it with salt , a necessary along with cracked peppercorns and herbs.Some, like, Washington DC chef Nate Anda of Partisan coats his in fennel pollen and red pepper flakes.it is then  cooked for eigh hours in a sous vide, followed by searing. It's then sliced in wafer thin pink slices and served on flat breads.FOr home chefs just use fresh ground pepper and kosher salt to seal in the juices and to give it a nice salty crust. Yorkshire pudding is baked afterwards, using the prime ribs' dripping. It's just a simple blend of flour, whole milk and kosher salt. A teaspoon of the meat's rendered fat or even melted butter is added to the batter for more flavor.The puddings only take 10 to 12 at 400 degrees Farenheit/ minutes to bake in a muffin tin. Serve with only horseradish cream.

Prime rib is an elegant cut, a throwback to our beef eating days. Make it and Yorkshire pudding for a truly flavorful experience  appealing to any and every meat lover's tastes. It's downright delicious and as you'll soon find out , addictive

Tuna For Thanksgiving///

Nothing beats a  full on holiday dinner? There's s yams, salad, rolls and tuna????? Yup. Some people want no part of a dried , stringy fowl or the leftovers attached to it. What some foodies want may not be traditional  but it  can be deemed  a holiday meal, just not in the US,

 The idea was the subject of an article in Wednesday's  revamped New York Times food section.Jeff Gordonier , a regular contributor to the section wrote about this foodie fantasty. He interviewed a number of chefs, gleaning what their holiday would be like if they had had their way.Zac Pellaccio at Food & Game wants plump gleaming oysters and wild mushrooms grilled over the heats. He does desire turkeys but have them cooked rotisserie style  along with stuffing made in a cast iron pot. Sandra Beasley, a poet and author would prefer roast salmon, then have it incorporated into a salad later and much later as a sandwich.Amanda Freitag, the chef at the Empire Diner goes to an entirely different cuisine for her dream Thanksgiving Day dinner. She imagines a Korean style lay out with fried fish splattered with spicy sauce. Instead of cranberries, there would be kimchi and a few other .
 pickled sides.

For those with celiac disease such as Gaven Kayson, the former chef at Café Boulud and now current owner of Spoon and Stable in Minneapolis, the pies and stuffings are a no go. He'd rather have socca xhips with anchovy, along with shrimp, oysters and grilled lamb. Even non chefs like the nurse practioner,Shelley Simons of Atlanta would rather have king crab claws and asparagus,However there are some of us, myself included that like the traditional dinner. However if there are some of you out there who would like a leg of lamb or roast duck instead of the roasted tom, wait until New Year's Day. The relatives will be too sloshed or still in bed when you experiment and sub in something wildly innovative for the usual ham and Hoppin John.

Thanksgiving is always a polarizing holiday.some want turkey and tradition, others want tuna and wild rice.Keep in mind that the holiday is really four days long. If you can't get what you want on the actual day, there's always Black Friday to try out that baked salmon.

Raising Wings To New Heights

Chicken wings were never meant to be gourmet.Their place was usually at sports bars,served with beer and possibly shrooms.Yet some New York chefs are taking them to new heights.These wings are flying high and flying with interesting spins and inspired flavors. Jeff Gordonier wrote about the new breed of chicken in today's New York Times Dining section.Many chefs realize that chicken wings, especially now during football season, are a lucrative dish.Many are reluctant to put them on their menus because they feel it might cheapen the restaurant's reputation.Yet they are popular, no matter how they are served.People love chicken wings they're fun to dip into sauces, they're fun to eat and eve the sticky mess afterwards is entertaining.Many cooks are giving them an international spin too.Chicken wings are delicious on their own but coat, rub, or slather them with spices and juices and they become heavenly..One eatery,Dinosaur Bar-B-Cue has theirs with hoisin sesame and garlic chipotle along with one called the devil's duel - this one so spicy that the eater's lips and gums go numb because it's so fiery.Some kitchens have embraced the Korean cooking style of double frying.It does make the wings extra crispy but thanks to extra marinating , the meat inside is tender and juicy.Home chefs can try this method but also can grill them too.Just marinate them to get them tender and flavored. Wing lovers who want to try combinations should look to these chefs.Mr. Gordonier has included two recipes from Chefs King Phounannong and Hoon Kim.The first has the flavorful Spanish spice combo ,adobo.It also has crushed peppercorns for heat and soy sauce for added flavor.This along with garlic and coconut milk are turned into a marinade where the wings will sit for thirty minutes before cooking..They're then fried in vegetable oil..Hanjan chicken wings are a true Chinese recipe, with a marinade of soy sauce sake and miring along with garlic.These are a bit healthier because they're grilled.there are other combos listed that home chefs can try on their own.Ducks Eatery, another hot Brooklyn hipster hangout offers Vietnamese style with a caramel type coating but made savory with peppers.Wings can go Mexican as they did in Chef Danny Bowen's Mexican Cantina.This is a mole version, dusted with coffee and cocoa.They're then spattered with creme, cotija and anson mills benne seeds.Home chefs can try this with a tad of dried ancho peppers. Wings are enjoyable no matter how you make them.Try them fried or grilled. Spiced or sauces.Experiment with them to create the perfect munch.They're meant to be elevated to gourmet heights. raise those wings high.

The King of LA Cooking

One man is deciding how Los Angeles eats and that is restaurant maven Roy Choi.He is responsible now for how the West coast metropolis eats.His ideas are a combination of both traditional and stoner new wave.It's down home and hipster all rolled into lists of tasty menus. It won't be long before he hit here,in the New York metro area. Chef Choi's story was a front page one on today's New York Times Dining section"Dining regular contributor ,Jeff Gordonier, wrote about this unique and truly only in America story.Only a few years ago Chef Choi wwas selling tacos out of a typical LA food chef.The service called Kogi featured tacos stuffed with Korean barbecue.This is pretty common fare however ,in like other food trucks.Kogi had a huge following onTwitter.Fans raved and promoted this fusion quick food on almost an epic scale.This led to his second venture,Chego,a fast food stand located in LA's Chinatown.Here Chef Choi sells rice bowls,comfort food from his Korean American childhood.He has also embraced truly American classics such as beer can chicken, cheeseburgers, mashed potatoes and cornbread at another of his restaurants, The A Frame, a former refurbished IHOP.He then went into Caribbean cooking with the shack called Sunny Side, a homage to those Jamaican and Bahamian beachfront eateries.He serves rum drinks that go well with the mofango and oxtail stew along with blueberry pancakes.To top that off this food mogul also supplies the joshed at at bar called The Alibi.His versatility comes from his background,a family of restaurant owners, an education at the Culinary Institute of America and a stint at Le Bernardin You would think Chef Choi would be busy enough with all these eateries, but he still has the energy to run his own trendy hotel in downtown LA?The Sydell Group backed him up and he created.It's trendy but thankfully not pretensious (unlike some Greenwich Village ones)People can walk in, and feel welcomed no matter how they're dressed.The hotel is home to yet another of Chef Choi's list called Pot and features the food of his childhood.It's combined with a bakery to produce Asiansweet buns amd hipster baked Mac and cheese.The hotel also houses a vegetable driven restaurant called Commissary.Not only that he tailored room service not to those traditional room service dishes but to what. People would actually eat such as Spam and eggs and a twist on Ramen soup.This last can easily be copied at home.It's just the famed Ramen soup pack that has a poached egg, butter and a slice of American cheese to it(this will be attempted later but with Parmesan cheese instead of the American).The refurbished soup is popular with Korean American kids, a sort of comfort food like baked Mac and cheese. Roy Choi is one of the newer wave of chefs.They mix their culinary heritage with hipster influence and American culture.The result is what American wants to eat.

Pub Grub Renaissance

American bar food has always been either salty , greasy or both.However there is a sea change happening.Those nibbles guaranteed to make patrons drink more,now make them want to eat more.They are little plates of gourmet treats and innovative snacks. Customers may head in wanting a drink but upon seeing these snacks, may just rather nosh instead. Jeff Gordonier explored this in his article in yesterday's New York Times Di ing section.Tasty bar food is nothing new. new.The jApanese have izakayas, Spain has it's famed tapas and even England has it's gastro pubs.Americans bars are picking up on this trend now as well.The gourmet plates do bring in customers who are looking for more than a simple beer or wine cooler.They also bring in revenu.Bar food is no longer gratis .There has to be a fee because of the ingredients and labor involved in making them.Some are only $12 to $15 a small plate such spiced nuts.The lounge at Manhattan's famed Bernardin offers the ultra luxe $45 for croque Monsiuers brimming with caviar.Bar food usually reflects the restaurants ethnic slant .A hungry bar hopper can literally go on a global bar food tour in New York City. Norwegian hangouts Aquavit and Torst feature snacks with a Scandinavian slant while Spanish restaurants such as La Vara or El Cornado feature Iberian tapas.If you want to savor pub grub head to Shakespeare or if you want Korean,then Hanjan.Sampling a restaurants bar menus os actually an ingenious idea.It shows how good the food is and creates a pull to come back and try the lunch and dinner menus. One restaurant is completely devoted to bar snacks.It's owner ,the innovative and soon to be culinary superstar,Wylie Dufresne serves snacky plates of chicken wings dusted with a powder that tastes like Caesar salad dressing and onion rings that pay an homage to French onion soup.Other chefs such as Mark Forgione ,with a restaurant of the same name has found a way to use up his potato peelings.They are converted into long, spiral versions of potato chips.These come with a super sized bowl of smoked onion remoulade.Variations of deviled eggs are popping up too .They have twists such as a sprinkle of chicharron and jalapenos. There are also takes on chicken and waffles ,hotdogs and subs. Pub grub has now gone beyond the usual nuts and pretzels.Chefs are recreating tasty snacks that do more than just bring on thirst.They awaken the taste buds,and create a tasty companion to great cocktails,beers and wines.

Norwegian Wood

Scandanavian cuisine has always taken some getting used to as well as some ribbing over the years.Yet this ancient way of cooking and spicing is taken on a new form.Call it Nouveau Nordic .It's creating a stir in New York and getting palates excited again for this northernmost of European foods. Jeff Gordonier explored this as well as experimented with it in his column in today's New York Times Dining section.New Nordic, as it's known, has been around since the early part of this century.It sparked with the famed Marcus Samuelsson bringing a fusion of Ethiopean and Swedish cuisine to Harlem. Rene Redzepi came out of Denmark, bursting with new spins and old ideas such as curing ,foraging pickling and plating. Now, more than a handful of chefs from all over the Scandanavian arc are opening up restaurants throughout the city and its' boroughs.Most eateries are relying on the strong flavors of sea and land.As with Viking cuisine of a millennia ago, the flavors center around twigs, berries,roots, weeds, bark ,hay, grass along with kelp, fish soil and a kind of barrel fermented funk. That said , these add to the dishes ,making them customer favorites. What are these imported chefs creating? At Brooklyn based Luksus,Daniel Burns (who is really not Scandanavian,and has also cut his culinary teeth at The Fat Pig in London,England) gives us aebleskiver, a fritter made with duck confit and mushroom.Another chef, Swedish born Fredrik Berselius relied on his upbringing of foraging to influence his style.His most famous dish is a milk sorbet ,with a forest medley of spruce, yarrow and wild berries. another popular dish, known and loved by all Scandanavians is blood pudding.This is a sausage made with dried blood and filler, such rye and oats and then flavored with onions and molasses.It's a hard sell be cause it's not as popular here as it is in most of Europe.Skal offers a more friendlier charred broccoli, easily made at home too.This is breaded florets ,charred and then brushed with aoili sauce. NouvelleNordic is gaining its fair share of foodie fans.It is reflects the old with new ideas.Together it brings a new form of Scandanavian cuisine to New York Palates.

Elegant Holiday Plating

Nothing offsets a meal more than how it's plated. It elevates the dish, giving it a rarefied status. Even the most ordinary of foods looks like pure gold whenthey're presented in an elegant fashion.Plating is a great idea for holiday parties and dinners,giving guests a special "wow" factor.

It was the subject and also a pictorial in Wednesday's New York Times Dining section.Dining regular , Jeff Gordnier ,  had presented an interesting representation from various New York and its' boroughs restaurants. Perhaps the classiest is Elm in the trendy Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. Chef Paul Liebrandt makes squab lollipops surrounded by small dabs of greens.It's refreshing and puts diners in mind of Spring and Summer. This is a great idea for holiday hors d' oeuvres with  maybe lamb pops surrounded by thimblefuls of collard greens or salsa verde.WD-50 chef, the famed Wylie Dufresne layers literally curds and whey over duck slices to create a unique dish.

Any home chef could copy these ideas. Instead of just a heap of mashed potatoes think three small rounded teaspoons with a drizzle of gravy  accompanying slices of beef. Filet mignon can be made even more elegant with a line of anchovy paste or caviar drawn on top. Salad can be served  as a decoration with a halved grape tomato surrounded by a small wreath of baby greens. Of course you can also go old school with plating as Chef Joey Campanero of The Little Owl did . He serves a pork chop upon a bed of dandelion greens It's  given a homey feel with a pool of gravy underneath and a heaping side of whipped spuds. Doing this showcases the pork chop but also gives it a more homey , inviting feel to it.

Not only must holiday dishes be tasty ,they should also be presented in an interesting and elegant fashion.Plating can do this. Create a beautiful meal . Use your  food as the colorful ingredients to make a masterpiece .

From Seed To Table

There is already a farm to table movement happening in restaurants across the country.Imagine it going a step further with chefs taking a vested interest as well as having a say about the seeds sown.It may sound a bit extreme but it's taking hold.Doing such though can add totime honored recipes . Yet , will the seed to table movement catch on?

The idea was debated and discussed in Wednesday's New York Times Dining section. Dining regular Jeff Gordonier explored it, writing about how it will change the way chefs will cook and create. What this means is that not only will fruits and vegetables be better tasting but so will grains. Chefs may ask growers to experiment, creating not only strawberries that may taste better or even veggie hybrids but also richer, more flavorful grains..It also means more nutrients will be added to these , creating super foods. A  simple salad won't be simple.It will be chock full of  vitamins. Even that complimentary basket of bread won't be just an appetite whetter, it will be chock full of all sorts of good for your nutrients.

Are all chefs behind this? The answer is yes. Even chefs Sam Kass and Bill Yosses from the White House are for this movement. International chefs from Spain(always a forefront in anything culinary) to France to even South America approve of the seed to table idea. New York cooks, including the famed baker  David Bouley, is behind it. For him it would be a bonus, Imagine what his famed breads would taste like if they had been made with tastier flour. For all chefs it would create not only more healthful dishes from appetizers to desserts but also more flavorful ones.New hybrids would allow chefs too to create new dishes or spins on classic ones.

It may be in its' infancy but the seed to table movement will be picking up steam.It will add a different dimension to old and well used recipes.It will definitely usher in a new age of restaurant cooking.

Building A Better Chicken

Is there a way to give chicken meat the same posh quality as Kobe beef? Yes! There is a movement amongst New York chefs to improve the life of poultry fated for the table.It means better treatment, resulting in more flavorful cuts and dishes. Soon chicken will be regarded as not common and every day  but richer in texture and taste.

Jeff Gordonier, usually a regular contributor to the New York Times Wednesday  Dining section , wrote a piece for the Times that made page one.It is  about a new movement  called from table to farm to table again and involves a certain breed of chicken.These are the heritage breed from Gascony in Southern France. The red feathered beauties are getting scraps from such high class restaurants as Per Se, Daniel, Gramercy Tavern, The Modern and David Burke Townhouse. These  are better than what some people eat. There are baguette scraps soaked in milk along with salad leftovers. It is a rich dinner resulting in better tasting birds.The scraps from the restaurants are designed for the birds fated for their tables.

Is the meat truly better? According to the many chefs involved in the project the answer is yes. The chicken tastes like what it should taste like, gamier, more flavorful and chewier than those raised in  slaughterhouses. The birds raised this way are exactly like what our great grandparents ate without any artificial additives and hormones.It's healthier as well.It's also more expensive A dish featuring homemade chicken sausage at Gramercy Tavern is 22 dollars . Another restaurant featuring chicken meat from an average butcher would cost less. The chefs are hoping this idea will influence other cooks across the country and bring back a more old fashioned, smaller farm raised meat industry.

If this is successful, then  expect better chickens gracing our restaurant tables. It's a good step away from the usual hormone and steroid injected poultry  most of us have been eating.The table to farm to table is the start of better eating in this country.Let's hope it catches on.

Your Holiday Food Guide Really

Imagine going on a vacation in a foreign city and not knowing what to eat. You're stuck as to what foods to try or what restaurants are good. Not to worry. There are food guides , people who can help you with meals and eateries. These are more than foodies. These gourmets can navigate and find some of the best deals and tastes in any city, whether the US or Europe.

Jeff Gordonier explored this in an article in today's New York Times Dining section. A regular contributor to this section, he gives readers tips and idea son how to hire their own food guide. There are a variety of web sites that advertise as well as food bloggers that help help tourist with restaurant finding.These services do not come cheap however.Prices range from $75 to $100 dollars per person (this means only adults) and a grand for a small party of people..It tends to be only a three to four hour excursion and the price of food is included. Armed with the  knowledge gleaned, visitors then can stick with the  restaurants and markets shown to them.

Is this a good idea? Actually yes, Many tourists, especially, Americans in Europe, tend to stick with what they know - namely MacDonalds'.While this may be fine at home, it is  nice to try the local cuisine. Food guide Ansel Mullins of Istanbul Eats takes his customers  through Istanbul's  the market  places tot try exotic Turkish street food such as kokorec. Normally tourists wouldn;t eat this, a sandwich made from sweet breads and intestines. However with Mullins , they get to try this and not miss out on it's tastiness. He also points out that tourists get to try smaller mom and pop places instead of the higher priced restaurants, and get to explore and sample local food markets.

Eating on vacation can be a stressful event. However there are food guides to help out .They can show some of the best places to enjoy the local cuisine and flavor.

The Gin And Tonic Game

It could be that summer is here. It could be a renewed fascination with all things Fitzgerald and Gatsby. Whatever the reason gin is king again and that means a return to classic drinks. One is the summery G and T or gin and tonic. This cocktail is suddenly hot again and is the thirst quencher of the Summer of 2013.

Gin was the highlighted subject of an article in today's New York Times Wednesday Dining section The entire section is dedicated to summer cocktails(more in days to come) and Dining regular Jeff Gordonier wrote about this classic. Gin is making a comeback, possibly more because of Baz Luhrman;s The Great Gatsby and people wanting to relive the  carefree,crazy times of the Twenties. The big drink of the era was the gin and tonic,an insanely simple mix of just two ingredients. Gin however   is not just gin these days. There's one named after the famed writer of the day Dorothy Parker.  This is a  pure gin but there are some that are anise flavored as well as some with a lavender taste.

Gin and tonics should be just that. However Mr. Gordonier has tried the drink with a muddled kumquat  found at his glass' bottom. There are recipes that call for a grapefruit slices and basil. There's also one with lemon and lime twists  from Manhattan's Spanish restaurant Cata. This eatery has dozens of varieties on the classic G and T. The drink is the perfect foil for tapas, going well with the salty and oily nibbles. Another kind is gin and tonic made with fresh made tonic ,The last comes from cinchona or quinine and it gives the drink an iced tea hue. It's one of the best versions out there, with artesanal tonic complimenting well made gins.

Gin and tonic is the perfect summer drink .It will brink you back to the Twenties when gin was king. Create the perfect one with good quality ingredients. Then sit back and feel like a Fitzgerald character at a glam warm weather soiree.