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FoodMayhem
Written from New York City (mostly), FoodMayhem.com is all about... food! We love food: talking about food, writing about food, looking at food, taking pictures of food, making a blog about food, and, of course, eating food.
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Chinese New Year's Eve Dinner at Mom's
2008-02-07 04:32:00
Everything my mom makes is always amazing. So many people have begged my mom to open a restaurant but she never will. It remains a special treat for loved ones only. This year, she decided on some non-traditional dishes since we'll be having a big banquet style meal tonight as well.First, Fried Butterfish with Pickled RadishesThis cold dish of Surf Clam and Celery is light and refreshing. The hint of sesame oil is a nice accent.We saw this innovative dish last time we went to New Yeah Shanghai and my mom has a knack for taking restaurant creations and improving them. These Pork and Sticky Rice Wrapped in Bamboo Leaves looked better and tasted better.Yum, ox tail stewed in a rich tomato sauce. The picture is a bit smoky since I took the picture right as my mom plated it.These Fried Shrimp Balls were a hit. The coating is clever little cubes of bread making a light and crunchy outside.My mom makes an awesome Fish Head Soup. She uses a type of tofu, translated as frozen tofu. The process ...
Dinner
New Year
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Valentine's Day Special
2008-02-06 23:53:00
Valentine's Day is the second worst day of the year to go to a restaurant. The first worst being Mother's Day. There are tons of things you can do besides a restaurant for Valentine's Day. It'll show creativity and more effort than just making a reservation.1. Have a private chocolate & wine pairing for two. The easiest way is buying the Ghirardelli Intense Moments Gift Box. It comes with a wine pairing guide. If you want to put together your own matches, here are some guidelines and suggestions. My favorite pairing, discovered at a candy show in November, is the Cacao Reserve Milk Chocolate Truffle with a chilled Michael Mondavi Riesling.2. Get a heart-shaped cookie cutter and make any every day food more special. Heart-shaped peanut butter and jelly sandwich, heart-shaped grilled cheese, heart-shaped rice krispy treats?3. Make your place into your own private Japanese restaurant. Order from your favorite sushi place and display the sushi on sushi boards or boats. You can also buy ...
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Celebrate Chinese New Year!
2008-02-05 16:06:00
Chinese New Year celebrations start tomorrow night and lasts for days. Even if you're not Chinese, you can celebrate as well. Here's a brief outline. Pick and choose the things you'd like to do and modify as you wish. Hey, I celebrate Break Fast but I don't fast.1. New Year's Eve dinner is Wed night this year, on February 6th. Everyone scrambles home to be with their family, usually going to wherever their elders are. So, if you can, go have dinner with your parents and/or grandparents.2. The New Year's Eve meal is supposed to include a wide variety of dishes: a chicken, a duck, a fish, a meat (beef, lamb, or pork), and as many of each as possible. You can order in or make reservations at a restaurant to make things easy.3. Right before midnight on Wed night, eat dumplings. Dumplings are similar in shape to an old form of Chinese money or gold ingots called Yuan Bao and so dumplings are symbolic. You can also fold Yuan Bao shapes with paper.4. Make sure you have plenty of left-over fis ...
Celebrate
New Year
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Gusto Grilled Organics
2008-02-05 04:06:00
Gusto Grilled Organics Gusto Grilled Organics, no affiliation to Gusto Gusto (the Italian restaurant), is the first certified organic and certified green restaurant in New York. I am way excited! Unfortunately, the food is only mediocre but I'm looking forward to this trend growing and I really appreciate this first step that Gusto Grilled Organics is taking.Starting with the basket of bread, I was unimpressed. They were dry. We ordered the Tenderloin Pizza and the meat was over-cooked and under-seasoned. The dough (we chose whole wheat) was dry, crisp, and more like a cracker, with no flavor. Same goes for the crust on the Napolitana but I did like the flavor of the mozzarella, provolone, sauce, garlic, and parsley. We also ordered a side of average grilled vegetables and a Beef Empanada. The Empanada had a nice flavorful filling but the dough was a bit dry. Our waiter recommended the apple pie so we gave it a shot. It was a regular slice of Apple Pie but it was served with a very go ...
Grilled
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Salt by Mark Kurlansky
2008-02-04 18:31:00
Salt was a New York Times Bestseller and Anthony Bourdain (who I respect) says "...a must-have for any serious cook or foodie." I bought this book thinking that I was going to love it. Well, I hated it. Honestly, I've only read about a quarter of the book but I couldn't get through it. It's really a history book and as much as I love salt as an ingredient or seasoning, this book is just so boring if you're not into history. I'm giving it to my dad. BTW, for foodie reading, I loved Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. ...
Salt
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Flat Earth: Not Good.
2008-02-03 20:06:00
In Duane Reade the other day, I noticed a stack of new snack products: Flat Earth. The bag is well designed and definitely hinted that the inner contents might be healthy, and after reviewing the ingredient list, the product is fairly healthy, albeit highly processed food, what can you expect from a Frito Lay brand?I snagged a bag of the Peach Mango Paradise flavor crisps. While I had no idea what to expect, I was hoping it would just be delicious, something like the Calbee Snapea Crisps, which are remarkably addicting and delicious. But alas, the Flat Earth crisps were anything but delicious. In fact, their logo (and website URL) is "Impossibly Good" -- I joked with Jessica and Janny that it would be impossible for anyone to think these were good.Jessica almost spit out the crisp she ate, thinking it was just horrible in flavor. Janny was not eager to comment on the flavor, I suspect not wanting to insult me for serving them... so she simply said they were crispy and would rather not ...
Earth
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Knickerbocker Bar & Grill
2008-02-03 00:54:00
Knickerbocker Bar & Grill Knickerbocker Bar & Grill was such a big let down. All three of us, Janny, Lon, and I, had heard good things about about the food here. When we walked in from the generic looking outside, I was pleasantly surprised by the cool piano bar atmosphere. You feel like you've left the NYU area and stepped into the 1970s. The build up then continued as we were seated on very comfortable banquettes and a basket of warm cornbread and fresh sesame bread appeared. The service here is excellent and portions are quite large but I must insist that the food is mediocre at best and certainly no place for a foodie.I can see why people like it here because I really wanted to. I was so impressed as several waiters patiently helped an elderly lady, dining by herself, with all of her needs. She needed steak to be cut, plates to be moved around the table, and sometimes just seemed to want to chat.We were all so excited about the menu. There were lots of non-standard items a ...
Bar
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Bee Pollen
2008-02-02 04:10:00
Bee pollen (a.k.a. bee bread) is best defined as a miracle of nature. It has trace amounts of many different minerals and vitamins, it is relatively low calorie, high fiber, and high protein. We recently learned about it from our acupuncturist Pailin Winotaka and picked some up from Tremblay Apiaries' stand in Union Square Green Market (also available on their web site). We're glad we now know about this super food and you should too.Bee pollen is used in many cultures for medicinal purposes, both preventative and reactive. Some of the uses include improving energy, endurance, vitality, fertility, longevity, and recovery (including in cancer care); it is also used to correct imbalances such as weight issues and hormone regulation); and it is a natural antibiotic.It includes dozens of chemicals including melittin, adolapin, apmin, compound x, hyaluronidase, phospholipase A2, histamine, and mast cell degranulating protein (MSDP), dopamine, norepinephrine, seratonin, B-complex, folic ac ...
Bee
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Sour Cream Lemon Cupcakes
2008-02-01 03:12:00
I wanted to use up the left over lemon buttercream I had from making Monica and Jae's birthday cake, so I came up with an easy recipe for mini Sour Cream Lemon Cupcakes. It's a hit!Sour Cream Lemon CupcakesMakes 24Ingredients1/2 cup butter1 cup white sugar1 egg1/2 cup sour cream1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract1 teaspoon lemon extract1 cup all-purpose flour1/2 teaspoon baking powder1/8 teaspoon saltInstructionsPreheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a mini muffin tray with nonstick spray. Set aside.In a large bowl, cream together butter and white sugar until light and fluffy.Beat in the egg. Then stir in the sour cream, vanilla extract, and lemon extract.In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, and salt.Mix dry mixture into the wet mixture.Spread evenly in the mini muffin pan (should have 24 muffins).Bake for 15 minutes. Check with toothpick test. ...
Cream
Cupcakes
Lemon
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My BIG Peeve!
2008-01-31 16:11:00
I hate when people rate and review recipes when they've changed some ingredients and/or some methods. Then, you are rating and reviewing a different recipe. I see it all the time. It comes up in conversation and I read it all over the web. For example, on allrecipes.com you'll see that someone rated a recipe 2 stars, which is low. When you read the review, it reads something like "I used whole wheat instead of AP flour and I only used 1/2 cup milk (recipe called for 1 cup) because that's all I had left and it came out gross."Well frankly, you have no right to review the recipe since you've changed it. You didn't make that recipe. This is especially poignant for baking recipes. Slight changes can alter the effectiveness drastically. If you can't measure accurately, you've already messed up.Some people are notorious recipe changers. You never follow a recipe, ever. You know who you are. I have no problem with that. Just don't review a cookbook. Get it?I understand that sometimes, there ...
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Breyers Lactose-Free Vanilla Ice Cream
2008-01-31 03:55:00
When I was young I consumed massive quantities of dairy. The shape or form didn't seem to matter. Downing bowls of ice creams, quarts of cottage cheese, pints of yogurt, or chocolate milk mixed with heavy cream were daily experiences. My mom used to buy a product called "big moo" -- it was five gallons of milk in a huge container with a spigot. I could easily get through that within the week. Heck, a friend once paid me to eat a stick of butter, and I enjoyed it (mostly). This infatuation with dairy got more refined as I aged, but not any less intense. Instead of gallons of ice cream, it was piles of cheeses. Living above a gourmet shop, the manager provided me with the pick of the cheeses as they arrived, the bluer the better.But some time in my early 20s stomach issues started developing, and eventually it became clear that I was... lactose intolerant. About this there is only one thing I can say: it sucks! For a while lactaid pills helped. But as my tolerance decreased, so di ...
Cream
Ice
Ice Cream
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Perilla
2008-01-29 03:53:00
Perilla Perilla, an herb that is a member of the mint family, and the name Harold Dieterle chose for his restaurant, is a welcomed addition to the NYC restaurant scene. While winning the first season of Top Chef guaranteed tons of press and a stream of people lining up to try Perilla, I believe that Perilla has staying power because Harold truly has talent.I'm going to justify my opinion by adding that my friend and mentor, Carol Gelles, who dined with me and Lon, has been to Perilla twice before and loves it. She had dishes in mind that we had to try, the first being, the Spicy Duck Meatballs. They were rich, peppery, and delicious. To top it off, I loved the accompaniments (which was pretty much true with every dish), a raw quail egg and mint cavatelli. We also had a well-balanced Heirloom Red Lady Apple Salad with Maytag Blue Cheese, and a Sweetbreads Thai Salad, a special that our charming waiter described so well, Lon was enticed. Carol and I, both not big fans of sweetbreads, wer ...
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Ali Baba Turkish Cuisine
2008-01-29 03:46:00
To celebrate Monica & Jae's birthday, a night of Turkish food and partying at Vig 27 was planned. Sarah (all the pictures here are courtesy of Sarah) picked the restaurant, and it was a great choice.From outside, Ali Baba Ali baba is unassuming, no more than 12 feet wide. When you walk in, it's a tight fit, and it seems like a small place. But as you walk back, the restaurants gets wider and the ceiling goes up, and then, if you're in a group, as we were (12 people), we went all the way to the enclosed garden, that had a large space heater. There were two other large groups in the garden with us.The employees at Ali Baba all seem to have an accent, which made communication a bit iffy at times, but mostly things works out. Such as ordering two large plates of the Mixed Appetizers. Each includes lebni, hummus, eggplant salad, ispanak eggplant, and pilaki. These were accompanied by absolutely delicious bread, sliced into strips, lightly topped with black sesame seeds. The ispan ...
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Union Square Cafe
2008-01-28 20:45:00
Believe it or not, I've never been to the famous Union Square Cafe Union Square Cafe. It's expensive, and at times very hard to get reservations, so somehow, it has slipped through, until today. My friend Lily and I made last minute plans for lunch there and it happens to be restaurant week (which I pay no attention to for dinner since I haven't been impressed the last few times). We had a very enjoyable lunch for a very good price so I'm sure to return to Union Square Cafe again, at least for lunch during restaurant week.The atmosphere is nothing fancy, just clean and comfortable, tables spaced apart nicely unlike most of NYC. The floors were slippery though and I almost fell twice. Three types of fresh bread, olives, and butter are presented at seating and water is delivered and refilled promptly. I was very happy with their 2008 restaurant week menu because there was four choices per course. I hate when there is only two choices for any of the courses and I've seen that often on res ...
Cafe
Union
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Cranberry Bread Pudding
2008-01-28 15:45:00
Last week, we had some guests over for dinner and Lon bought three baguettes, when we only needed one. This is common Lon behavior but of course, I had to figure out what to do with it. I decided to throw together a simple bread pudding and everyone seemed to love it (4 people finished about 75% of a 9x13 pan) so I'm posting the recipe, which was basically made based on what I had at home at the time.Ingredients5 eggs1 1/2 cups white sugar2 cups milk2 cup heavy cream1 tablespoon vanilla extract1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon2 (6-8 oz) baguettes, cut into 1 inch cubes1/2 cup dried cranberriesInstructionsWhisk eggs, sugar, milk, heavy cream, vanilla extract, and cinnamon together until smooth. Set aside.Spray a 9x13 pan with non-stick spray and spread baguette cubes evenly in the pan. Sprinkle the dried cranberries on top.Pour the egg/milk mixture on top and press the bread down lightly.Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours. (You can leave it overnight.)When you're ready to bake it, ...
Bread
Pudding
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Reddi Wip... Good for Bob
2008-01-28 03:57:00
We had dinner and dessert at Kasi and Stephen's tonight. For dessert we enjoyed a great bread pudding that Jessica made, using the many, many extra baguettes I bought, for some unknown reason (I do that from time to time). Kasi whipped out (sorry for the pun) some Reddi Wip. I couldn't help but notice some interesting writing on the canister.First of all, in a large blue swirl, just beneath the logo is the important factoid "Made with Real Cream". I can't help but be concerned about the state of food affairs when a whip cream manufacturer needs to advertiser that they actually use real cream in their product. I guess when you consider the fact that there are products like Cool Whip in the market, made of water, corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated coconut and palm kernel oil , sodium caseinate, vanilla extract, xanthan and guar gums, polysorbate 60 (glycosperse), and beta carotene, without a damn drop of cream to be found [from Wikipedia], it starts to be importan ...
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Shout Out: Boston!
2008-01-27 21:40:00
The Boston Globe announced a list of the best new food in Boston today. I haven't been up to Boston in a few years, and it seems like it's time for another trip. The list features over 30 restaurants that sound amazing, many featuring local food. ...
Boston
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Birthday Cake for Monica and Jae
2008-01-27 15:55:00
Whenever I'm baking a cake for a friend's birthday, the part that takes the longest is deciding what kind of cake to bake. After thinking about it for hours and then sleeping on it, then a few more hours of thought in the morning, I decided to make a White Velvet Cake with Classic Lemon Buttercream and a Raspberry Glaze. It was a nice light cake with subtle flavors, perfect after our very heavy meal.I used recipes from The Cake Bible for all three components: cake, filling/frosting, and glaze. I love Rose Levy Beranbaum's book because you can mix and match recipes from each section to make your own cake. She also gives recipes for full cakes. Although, I don't recommend this book for beginners, it is one of my favorite cookbooks, and great for when you're ready to take baking up a notch. ...
Birthday
Cake
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Open Source Food
2008-01-26 14:47:00
When worlds collide... As a technology professional, focused on the Internet, how could I not love the web site Open Source Food? If only for the name, it's a great idea, but the content is wonderful as well. OSF is a social networking site that is all about recipes that have pictures and are rated by the community.The site is not nearly as vast as AllRecipes, having only launched recently, and not having nearly as many users. But the users do seem to be loyal and active, similar in that Web 2.0-way to users of Yelp and in that Web 1.0-way to users of Chowhound.Originally, I heard about this site through a co-worker, Tim, who I believe is related or friends with the founders of OSF. Since you likely don't know Tim, I get the honor of letting you know. Go check out Open Source Food and let us know what you think. ...
Food
Open Source
Source
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Aja - Grand Opening
2008-01-26 02:01:00
Aja Aja has opened a new restaurant in the West Village and since I ended up waiting for Lon at his office, way longer than expected, we decided to order dinner. We vaguely remembered enjoying a dinner we had at their original location Aja Asian Bistro and Loungeso it seemed like a good pick.We ordered a Sliced Chicken Hot & Sour Soup (since I'm still sick) that tasted like mild chicken broth with hot sauce. I kept thinking buffalo wings as I was drinking it but even more annoying was that there was very little stuff in the soup, almost like if you ladled some soup off the top of a pot without stirring. It was supposed to have silken tofu, diced tomatoes, mushroom, bean sprouts, vermicelli, and sliced chicken, but you really had to search for it. I think I found 3 bits of chicken, each the size of a pinky nail.They seemed to have an interesting list of Aja Special Rolls and I appreciated that several of the options were without avocado (not a big fan). We went for the Golden Drago ...
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Oh no! Cold-Eeze?
2008-01-25 19:06:00
It already sucks enough when you have a cold. You can't smell, can't taste, and feel crappy. Trust me, I know since I'm sick again! But, I just read about a possible lawsuit against Cold-Eeze. It seems that the nasal spray form has left users with a loss or change in sense of smell and/or taste. Although nothing has been proven yet, my sense of taste and smell is so important to me that I'm not taking a chance. Further, I have taken the Cold-Eeze tablets before (like yesterday) and I do feel like they give me a funny feeling on my tongue. I always thought it was cause I was sick but I'm chucking it out now. ...
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Ginger Milk Tea
2008-01-24 18:46:00
I love this ginger stuff (picture to the right) which is basically ginger sitting in honey. I couldn't find any online but it's available at most Asian markets in New York.Many people just dissolve a teaspoon or two in hot water for simple ginger tea but one of my favorite winter drinks is a hot cup of Ginger Milk Tea. Here's the basic recipe which you can adjust to your taste:2 teaspoons of that ginger stuff1 cup of boiling water1 teaspoon sugar1 teaspoon heavy cream1 tea bag (black tea)1. Place the ginger stuff in a mug and dissolve with hot water.2. Add sugar and heavy cream and stir.3. Dunk tea bag and remove tea bag depending on how bitter/strong you like your tea.It's so good; I'm about to make my third cup of the day. ...
Ginger
Milk
Tea
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Be a Part of America's Test Kitchen
2008-01-24 03:25:00
My friend Sarah just notified me that Cook's Illustrated, one of my favorite food publications, has a Friends of Cook's program that the public can join. You get to help America's Test Kitchen test recipes before they get published! Of course, I signed up. ...
America
Kitchen
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Organic Shopping Cheat Sheet
2008-01-23 18:55:00
Buying everything in organic versions can be really expensive or just hard to find. I have been hearing for a while now that organic is more important for certain items than others due to the amount of pesticides used and the amount certain produce will retain. The Environmental Working Group offers a guide showing pesticide load for 43 fruits and vegetables. So, if you can't afford to buy everything in organic, the idea is to try to buy the top ranking (most contaminated) foods in organic versions to avoid consuming the high amounts of pesticide.Aside from produce, you can avoid growth hormone and antibiotics by buying organic meat, poultry, dairy, and eggs. ...
Organic
Sheet
Shopping
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Vegetarian Paradise 2
2008-01-22 20:27:00
I'm not a vegetarian but every once in a while, I meet up with my vegetarian friend Emily for a meal, and to catch up. Today, we squeezed in a lunch in between her classes (she's an NYU Law student) at Vegetarian Paradise 2 Vegetarian Paradise 2 .Our waiter came over and asked if we were ready to order, Emily replied yes, and he jumped to another table. It was really weird. Then, we had trouble flagging him down to order for a while. Later, my hot and sour soup (average vegetarian version) came but Emily's spring rolls didn't. We asked about it, and the waiter said it was coming. Later, the spring rolls appeared on one of the main dishes. This was especially annoying because we expressed to him that we were sharing the main dishes.Anyways, the Tofu and Mixed Vegetables were pretty bland but I enjoyed the (fake) Chicken and Spinach in Curry Sauce. The vegetarian chicken wasn't great but I liked the flavor of the sauce.In all, this place has odd service and very average and predictable f ...
Paradise
Vegetarian
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Emeril's Banana Cream Pie
2008-01-22 04:15:00
My friend Angie has been raving about Emeril's Banana Cream Pie for a while. She had it in Florida years ago and has been hoping to have it again one day. For her birthday, I invited her over for dinner and surprised her with Emeril's Banana Cream Pie. She said, it tasted just like she remembers.All of us agree that it is a phenomenally delicious pie but there were a couple of issue with the recipe that I'd like to point out (notes are in red).Here's the recipe, from WCHSTV:Ingredients 5 large egg yolks 1/4 cup cornstarch 3 to 3 1/2 cups heavy cream 1 1/2 cups sugar 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped 3 cups graham cracker crumbs (This makes a pretty thick crust. I would cut out 1/2 cup.) 1/2 ripe banana, mashed 1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted 3 pounds of bananas, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch slices (Definitely can't fit this much banana on the pie) 3/4 cup caramel sauce 1 cup Chocolate sauce 2 cups heavy cream whipped to stiff peaks with 1/2 teaspoon pure vani ...
Banana
Cream
Pie
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On Drinking Wine
2008-01-21 05:33:00
People seem to struggle when it comes time to selecting wine. My co-worker Marcos would insert a pun here, something like "whine is not delicious." However, most agree that wine, without the 'h', is delicious. The question is, how do you pick the best wine?It seems odd that buying and picking wine makes so many people uncomfortable, but it shouldn't, it's really not that hard. So first, let's debunk a few myths and then consider a few basic tips.Myths to Ignore:Expensive wine is better wine. Wrong! Although some recent research shows that when people think wine is expensive, they think it tastes better, even when it's the same wine! Many wonderful wines are available for less than $10.Vintage is important. Barely! In days gone by, grape farmers had limited ability to manage the dramatic changes of weather, and therefore the impact on grapes between good and bad seasons could be huge. Advancements in farming and winemaking, including the blending of various vintages, mean that vintage ...
Drinking
Wine
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Szechuan Gourmet
2008-01-21 02:40:00
We just had a very mediocre meal at Szechuan Gourmet Sundaes & Cones. The Camphor Tea Smoked Duck was good but everything else was not so great. Our prawns were over-cooked, the dumpling meat tasted old, and the Fish Head Casserole was extra fishy. Lon has been there in the past and so have my parents, separately, and have all had good experiences in the past so I'm not sure if it was a fluke or decline in quality. ...
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Amish Market to the Rescue
2008-01-20 20:44:00
Our friend Justin through a great surprise brunch birthday party for his girlfriend Shayna. There was a great arrangement of bagels and spreads from Murray's Bagels, lox and belly salmon, a cheese platter(loved the Ubriaco), fruit, and crackers. The other table was filled with chips and dips and I made a big basket of assorted mini muffins, maple walnut, chocolate, and banana. (Yes, I just wanted to show off my basket of muffins)Everything was perfect but Something Sweet Something Sweet called Justin around 11am to tell him they couldn't deliver the cake he had ordered to be delivered at 12. That is so unreliable that it doesn't even matter if their cakes are good or not. We didn't think we could get another cake on such short notice but Amish Market Amish Market came to the rescue and delivered two beautiful cakes in about 15-20 minutes. Now, that is service! ...
Market
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Philosophy in Margarine
2008-01-19 19:43:00
From hilarious blog, Tweebiscuit.net (which advertises the tag line: "Your Funeral.") comes a great statement of philosophy as accidentally created by a combination of marketing gurus as various margarine manufacturers plus the divine reach through the hands of a supermarket shelving clerk. ...
Philosophy
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