Baked

Matt Lewis is one of those cool friends that I never get to see because he’s too damn busy. Busy on book tours. Busy opening bakeries in Red Hook. Busy on vacation. I had an opportunity to go to his new bakery, Baked, in Red Hook while on a run for work. I took the F to Smith and 9th, then jumped on the B77 right across the street. It’s a couple of storefronts away from the restaurant Hope and Anchor and fills the street with sweet smells. I ordered a feta cheese and olive spread sandwich. It was simple and delicious. You can’t go wrong with warm bread from Almondine in Dumbo. For my co-workers, I brought back 3 treats. First, the peanut butter tart. The crust was shortbread, but the filling was a dream. Gooey yet light peanut butter filling topped with dark chocolate. It made Reeses look like, I don’t’ know, something that fell on the floor (something that’s not smooth). The chocolate cloud was just that. Crispy on the outside, chunky and fudgelike on the inside. And finally the spicy chocolate brownie. You don’t notice the spice at first, but then you feel the tingle in your throat after you swallow. Delish! Baked

Baltimore Farmer's Market

One of these days we'll have money to do shows in other cities. Until then, here are some pictures of the fabulous Baltimore Farmer's Market. Read the description from "Under the Bridge."

miso & mondoo

mondoo
Originally uploaded by i_eat_ny.

Last year I was talking to Chris about food trends. I was thinking: noodle bars and create-a-salad bars. He told me about food science. Foams infused with flavours, crystallized ingredients like kimchi and seaweed, deconstructed desserts.

He used to work at WD-50 where the head chef Wylie Dufresne was crazy for food science. Ferran Andrea, the inventive chef in Spain, is also a name I've been encountering lately in the research I did at work and in the NYTimes food pages. I even found out that my fabulous workmate Derrick ate at Andrea's restaurant two years ago. He was like, "Oh yeah, I ate there. It was kind of weird." So food science has been on my brain. And I've been thinking about an invention that I think will really take off.

See, I love the movies, and I love food. But I hate food in the movies. You don't eat in church, do you? I guess you do if you're Catholic, the body and blood stuff, but I digress. As much as I love popcorn, and I do - in fact, Mica and I plan to do a show on the stuff - I just don't think that it's a righteous movie snack. It's too loud, it smells when it gets wet, it gets all over the place, and it gets stuck in the teeth. I'm saved by the fact that when I go to a commercial movie theater, I know the popcorn tastes like salty Styrofoam and is full of chemicals. However, I have a hard time turning down the yummy Film Forum popcorn.

So from time to time, I like to think about what I'd serve in my dream theater. One day when I was eating some dumplings at M2M (3rd Ave &11th) and looking across to the Loews Theater, I thought in lieu of messy and crunchy nachos, we should be served dumplings. Utensils are not really needed. They don't make any noise when they're steamed. Fried might be a little too loud. But the sauce. How to handle the sauce? It's too dark in the theater to fiddle with the plastic pouch of soy sauce and there'd be hell to pay if it ripped open too vigorously and spilled everywhere. Then I thought of it. The invention to change the world.

Soy Sauce Gel! It must be easy to make a liquid into a gel, just add carrageenan, the seaweed derivative. That's kind of Asian. Or maybe mix tofu or rice flour in the soy sauce so that it's thicker and we can put it in tubes like toothpaste, thus making it easy to squeeze and stick to our dumplings! Kids will love it! They'll use it like ketchup! Then I realized how dumb this line of thinking was. There already is gel soy sauce. It's called miso.

So maybe that idea isn't that great, but going to M2M to get a movie snack is. They have a great selection of ready made foods like veggie and meat dumplings, Japanese sushi, Korean kimbop, chips, crackers and candy. It's cheaper, tastier and healthier than the stuff at the chain theater.

macaron or macaroon?

macaroon
Originally uploaded by i_eat_ny.

Josh and I had a nice long walk in Central Park this weekend, along with the rest of New York. I've never seen Strawberry Fields, and I still haven't because Josh couldn't remember where it was. Luckily he could remember where Silver Moon Bakery was located (2740 Broadway bw 105&106th St.). We almost went to the Hungarian Pastry Shop but it was too crowded and we really wanted to spend more time outside and all their tables were occupied. So we headed down to Silver Moon. Now I've only had one thing there - their big French macaron. It's a bit pricey at $2.25, but I daresay it is my favorite cookie and their version is awesome. It looks like a mini hamburger, the "bun" is a crunchy almost meringue like air puff and the filling is a rich ganache. The crunch. The chew. The simultaneous richness of ganache and the lightness of the puff is a feat of engineering that shouldn't be missed. Of course, I like the macarons at the classic French bakery, Payard, on Lexington bw 73rd &74th. They are famous for their macarons, but it's a bit stuffy over there. I prefer my neighborhood, I adore Something Sweet's (corner of 11th & 1st Ave.) macarons (75cents). They sell almond, mocha, pink (strawberry?) macarons, and they are fabulous. But it's a beautiful thing to share a huge French macaroon on a bench in Riverside Park with a good friend. Try it, or some other dessert or baked good from Silver Moon. You won't be disappointed.

Under the Bridge

I’m on the Greyhound bus returning to NYC after a weekend visiting family in Baltimore. It’s Mother’s Day, so we had a family brunch. An average but overpriced brunch at the Sheraton Hotel. It’s hard to do a good buffet because so much food must be out at one time. Quantity overcomes quality. I would have been happy eating at the Baltimore Farmer’s Market located under the expressway. It’s great! They have wonderful coffees for a buck, a guy who makes mini donuts (5 for a buck) and my favorite, the guy who makes kettle corn in a real copper kettle! I’m annoying the guy sitting next to me with the snack’s fragrance and crunch as I dip into my bag right now. My mom says it’s like the popcorn in Korea, a little bit salty, a little bit sweet.

I love the Baltimore Farmer’s Market because they incorporate food vendors with the usual vegetable harvest. Granted, the donuts and popcorn are a little street fair-ish, but I don’t care. I read about one of the San Francisco Farmer’s markets in the NY Times and how some people can’t stand the tourists. Tourists are annoying, but they bring in money. I love to spend money at the Baltimore Farmer’s Market. So does my mom. She balked at the flower prices compared to Home Depot, but I reminded her that when you buy from a farmer, you’re helping to support local farmers. She spent part of her childhood on a farm with her grandmother, so she could appreciate that. Consequently, she can’t pass over a good bargain and bought a huge bag of kale for just 99 cents a pound.

Some of the delicious foods at the BFM include a family that sells omelets made to order with a side of hash browns for 5 bucks. Across the way, the mushroom lady sells what else, mushrooms as well as delicious mushroom chili that sells out almost immediately, smoky grilled Portobello pita sandwiches and fried oyster mushrooms. There’s another great southern vendor who sells all kinds of smoked meats —huge turkey legs, thick slices of bacon, ham hocks and amazing cheddar cheese. My almost 3 year old nephew gobbled up the samples. I’ll take some pictures of this fabulous spot in about 2 weeks when I go back to Baltimore for his birthday.

To look up a farmer’s market in your town, go to http://www.ams.usda.gov/farmersmarkets

Showtimes!

Hi,
We had so much fun last night at the first public screening of Episode 2. Wish you were there. Here are the showtimes on cable access.

Monday May 16 9pm
Saturday May 21 10:30 pm
Tuesday May 31 9 pm

Channel 56 Time Warner cable
Channel 111 RCN
Channel 108 Digital
Channel 16 if you get it free
or online at MNN.org

Please watch us!
Thanks,
Mica and Liza

Korean home cooking

When I’m a little homesick for my mom’s cooking but I don’t have the friends or the money to have a big Ktown bulgoki blow out, I head over to Woorijip (12W. 32nd St. bw 5th Ave. & Bway). My parents actually discovered it for me maybe 5 years ago during a visit. My folks love those buffet style cafeterias. Woorijip’s steam table is good. It has your standard Korean fare, a variety of pancakes, meats, kimchis. While it ain’t my mom’s cooking, it’s a pretty good substitute. They also have boxes with set portions of kimbop, teriyakis, omelets and chicken. I’m sure people grab them during lunch hour like hotcakes. The refrigerated cases also contain make-at-home bulgoki, bibimbop, and lots of different banchan (side dishes like spinach, cucumbers, and kimchi, of course). But my favorite aspect of Woorijip is the noodle bar. Just today I wanted to try out a new Korean restaurant in Gramercy (She Ja Meh on E.18th St.) but it was closed. I needed Korean food, so I walked up to 32nd St. and was happy to find the noodle bar open. The air had a little nip to it, so I knew that I wanted kimchi jigae. "Jigae" means stew and is always a great way to use leftovers. When kimchi is getting sour, but not unbearably so, you throw it in a pot with some meat and let it cook until the cabbage softens and the meat and kimchi juice make a rich piquant broth. Topped with some rice to soak up some of the salt and spice, kimchi jigae is both exciting to the palate and comforting to the soul. Woorijip makes a nice pot of it for $6, and the noodle lady is so nice. They also sell a variety of udons and ramens if you’re in the mood for something milder.
The atmosphere has really improved over the years. It’s now painted a warm yellow, and easy listening cd’s play continuously. "Girl From Ipanema" or Ray Charles is almost always playing while I’m there. They also have a frequent visitor card that you can get stamped and when the card is filled you can get a free mug or bag with the Woorijip logo on it!