New York vs. Dom's Belly: Day 4 or, Now That's a Spicy Meatball!

The day starts with us sleeping in, helping our livers recover from the onslaught of local microbrews from the night before.

Then, SJ and I head down to Times Square to meet our grad school compatriot HC for lunch. First we go to a Cuban place and realize it doesn't have any vegetarian options, so we walk next door to Minar, a fast food Indian place.

My veggie combo with naan:SJ and HC's dosa masala with daal:The food is slightly salty and greasy... which is kind of exactly what we want. Nom nom nom. Then, while HC and SJ check out MoMA, I walk about 40 blocks around the city in order to work up an appetite for dinner. Unfortunately, I work up a little too much of an appetite and end up chasing this food stand guy as he pushes his cart down the street (to close up at the end of the day, I assume) for a pretzel.
I catch him, he gives me a look that says "You are crazy, here is pretzel, get away from me", I take pretzel, I bite pretzel.Having rejoined HC and SJ at MoMA, we head uptown for Koronet, take 4. Yes, sigh... take 4. This time though, it's a purely unselfish act, as I'm grabbing a slice to pack in my suitcase for Eddy, who has sadly missed out on this trip to be a busy worker bee.8 o' clock, and the time has come for us to go to Carmine's, so to Carmine's we go. We are accompanied by our wonderful host LT and our mutual friend AA. For those of you who have never been to Carmine's, it is an amazing family-style Italian restaurant on the upper west side. Everything is served in huge family-sized-to-share portions, so you should always go with a big group for maximal food variety. HC describes it as "what East Side Mario's wishes it was", and I tend to agree. The food is amazing, the waitstaff are friendly, and did I mention that there are large containers of (a) red pepper flakes and (b) parmesan cheese on the table? Spicy stuff and cheese? Dom is in love. While Dom is writing in the third person, Dom apologizes for the darkness of the following photos.

HC and SJ:LT and AA:Me and my mad self-portrait skillz:Red pepper flakes and cheese:Delicious bread with red stuff on the top (you usually get a mix of breads, but this stuff is the best, and the waiter obliged when Lisa asked if we could "just get a basket full of the good stuff"):Our gigantic 1.5 L bottle of Carmine's house red. It's the same price as all the other 750mL bottles, and the gigantic-ness comes as a bit of a surprise. We bravely glug our way through the majority of the bottle.Portobellos parmesan, post-ravaging:Carmine's salad. I'm not sure what all the ingredients are, but this salad is amazing! Roasted veggies, some sort of shaved cheese - pecorino, perhaps - arugula, etc.:Penne alla vodka, in which HC and I make a the smallest of dents:Spaghetti and fist-sized meatballs (for SJ, LT, and AA):The Half-Titanic. Carmine's flagship dessert is a turkey-sized plate loaded up with warm brownies, bananas, strawberries, vanilla and chocolate ice cream, whipped cream, and chocolate sauce. Carmine's does not know how to skimp on anything, so this thing is, well, titanic. When the waiter suggests it, we all moan the moan of a stomach too full. Knowing that, despite the moans, we all have dessert stomachs (there's always room for pie!), the clever scamp then sells us on a half-portion:Then, with mightily wonderful timing, AA hears through his iPhone that the Canada-Switzerland hockey game is tied 2-2 and they're going into overtime, followed by a shoot-out. Like the Canucky Canucks that we are, we pay the bill, and run out of the restaurant to find a bar that's showing the game. We find the game at Dive Bar, a much-loved spot from a previous NYC visit, and make it just in time to see Sidney Crosby's game winner. We all cheer, and everyone else in the bar turns around and stares at us awkwardly. "We're, uh, Canadian." "You're what?" "Uh, Canadian." "Huh. Weird. You wanted them to win?" "Yeah." "Oh." *awkward silence*

Finally, we celebrate the game, and the conclusion of my tenure in NYC, with some drinks:Man, I love eating in this city.

Addendum to Day 3

After our big lunch at Red Bamboo and the lovely coconut cake that followed, SJ and I didn't feel much like eating. We did, however, feel like beer, so we made plans to meet up with SJ's friend R to go out. On our way downtown, however, we changed our minds and went to Koronet for Round 2. This time, we split the huge slice to leave room for beer:
Then we headed to Amsterdam 106 to try some tasty local brews:I tried the Blue Point Toasted Lager (direct flames on the brewing kettle = toasty deliciousness), Coney Island Mermaid Pilsner (pretty typical clean pilsner flavour), Ithaca Cold Front (super yummy spicy Belgian-style amber ale), Brooklyn Pennant '55 Ale (similar head to the Blue Point with a rounder biscuity finish), and the Sly Fox Pikeland Pilsner (hoppy, light-bodied, and dry). My favourite was probably the first one, the Blue Point. Nom nom nom nom.

After leaving Amsterdam 106, SJ and R wanted Koronet (again!), so we went back for Round 3. I decided that I wanted something healthier, and here's where I have to make a confession. The 116 Oxfordites have been doing pretty well this winter at eating local, but on Monday night when I arrived in NY, starving and thirsty, I found some blackberries in Lisa's fridge. From Mexico. And I ate half the box. So while my compatriots went to Koronet for some greasy goodness, I went next door to the West Side Market and picked up more blackberries. And ravaged most of the sweet delicious box.
We can't win 'em all.

New York vs. Dom's Belly: Day 3

On today's docket: Red Bamboo and Atlas Cafe.

Red Bamboo is a vegan soul food restaurant right off Washington Square. It is the greatest. For lunch,

Vegan buffalo wings with blue cheese dressing:
Soul chicken sandwich with collard green roll:I decide early on that if I want to finish lunch, the bread will be my undoing, so I hedge my bets and turn it into an open-faced sandwich.

Me attacking said sandwich:Then we wander down to SoHo to Bluestockings Radical Books where I pick up this gem:I can't wait to try some of these recipes. If my experience with Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World is any indication, this book will rule superhard.

Finally, back up through the East Village to Atlas Cafe, purveyor of magnificent vegan sandwiches and treats.

The dessert display case:We settle for afternoon coffee/tea and some vegan coconut cake:
*Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurp*

Tomorrow: How to explode your stomach, family styles.

New York vs. Dom's Belly: Days 1 and 2

Well, here I am on my yearly pilgrimage to NYC, this time accompanied a fellow grad student pal SJ, and of course, staying with my very generous friend LT.

Day 1

We start things off right by drinking a couple Sam Adams on the train.
We arrive at Penn Station by train at 9:30pm and head up to LT's in Harlem to drop off our stuff. We then make a beeline back to the Columbia area to grab gigantor slices at Koronet.

My slice:Sarah's slice:Om nom nom nom!
Then SJ's friend R takes us to 1020 for some beers. I have a Brooklyn Pilsner and a Hefeweizen.

Day 2

Breakfast (in the far right tail of the probability distribution for breakfast time) at Kitchenette. Our waitress, Ebony, loves my haircut and SJ's coat. We love her for providing us with omelettes, biscuits, cheesy grits, and freshly squeezed orange juice.

I heart places that assume you want hot sauce.
SJ takes pretty pictures.Work all afternoon like good grad student bees in a coffee shop, then grabbed some groceries at the West Side Market and headed back to LT's place to make dinner: risotto with spinach, sauteed cremini mushrooms, and smoked gouda.
Take note: it has garnish and is overexposed. This makes it fine dining.
More to come, as my belly continues to battle with the wonderful gastronomic Godzilla that is New York City.

Smells Like Burning

Two farmers market purchases last week conspired to make my first every chutney attempt happen: crazy spicy Jamaican hot peppers and mangoes. I'm not sure why I even bough the mangoes. Probably because they were really cheap and that's great but its always a lottery with market mangoes. Will they suck (probably) or will they be an awesome find (not likely)?

These mangoes sucked.
The hot peppers were bought on a whim. A pile of green Jamaican ones and a some really hot red ones from Guyana. I decided to attempt spicy mango chutney with my suckey mangoes and hot peppers. Oh and some rather hard pears that had been in the fridge for a long time but still tasted pretty alright. There's some other stuff in there too.
I loosely followed this recipe but with pears instead of apples. I used 3 mangoes because their crappiness mostly meant that there wasn't a lot of usable mango flesh on them. I also used less sugar (1 cup and would probably only use half next time as it was still very sweet).
For spice I added two of the green Jamaican hot peppers and one hot red pepper. I really wasn't sure of how the burns-for-five-minutes-when-you-touch-your-tongue-to-it level of hottness was going to translate in the chutney so I didn't want to go totally overboard. While I was chopping the peppers up really tiny my eyes started watering and my nose started burning, I didn't think that was a good sign.
Everything into the pot (except the spices and lemon juice which are added at the end)It took about half an hour for everything to simmer down and thicken. For much of that it smelled like hot peppers through the kitchen and was irritating to breath. In the end though the spice mellowed out to just a pleasant after burn and I had two jars of delicious, delicious chutney! Seriously, so delicious.

Pie Club: Toronto Chapter

Last Saturday night, 116 Oxford St. was lucky enough to play host to Nate and Jess, who brought not only joviality and merriment, but also a hallowed old tradition from whence they came (the whence being Kingston). This tradition is Pie Club, and on Saturday (which was apparently National Pie Day - score!), the Toronto Chapter of Pie Club debuted with fantastical success. The rules of Pie Club are simple: make a pie you've never attempted before (sweet or savoury, we don't discriminate) and bring it to share. Also, don't talk about Pie Club. Alternatively, talk about Pie Club constantly to anyone who will listen. I made spinach fatayer (little Lebanese "pies") from the cookbook Ed's grandma used to use, which was bequeathed to Eddy and his sister Katherine by their Aunt Sandra this last Christmas. Behold:

Fatayer doughLemon juice and walnutsChoppin' onionsSpinachAssembling the fatayerAssembly complete!Baked and delicious.
And the rest of the pies (well most of them; I'm pretty sure that there were a bunch more things, including Cara's brilliant apple pie shots, that didn't get photographed because I got too drunk on pie to care):

Ed's "pop tarts" pre-bakingAnd post-bakingNate and Jess being merryBlueberry pie (pre-baking)Lingonberry pie (pre-baking)Quiche with swiss chard, caramelized red onion, and goat cheesePecan pieRustic apple pieSweet potato pieVeggie pot pieS'more pie
Ungh. I just finished eating some of the leftovers from this insane pie potluck and looking at all of these pictures brings me back to how ridiculously full I was afterwards. Phooooooooooo. Hope you all enjoyed looking at the spoils of pie war!