29 Monday Oct 2012
Posted in American, autochthonous, Peruvian, Queens, snacks
02 Tuesday Oct 2012
Blue crabs have been bigger and more plentiful this year because of warmer ocean temperatures last winter. I bought a dozen of some very frisky live blue crabs at N.Y. Supermarket in Elmhurst, Queens for $6.00
I boiled them for about one minute before removing them and placing them in the vaporera I use for steaming tamales. Each crab was positioned upside down and covered in Old Bay seasoning before being steamed for 12 minutes.
After steaming for 12 minutes, the crabs were ready to eat!
N.Y. Supermarket
82-66 Broadway
Elmhurst NY 11373
(718) 803-1233
28 Friday Sep 2012
Sarah Obraitis told me today that horse on the menu was a “figment” of someone’s imagination and that they served it once, like, “weeks ago”.
We ordered clam chowder (amazing), beef tartare sandwich (SO good and reminded me of a fatty tuna sushi roll), the frisée with lardons (just OK and came with a little green caterpillar in the greens), and the rabbit terrine (also amazing).
M. Wells Dinette was great but I totally miss the old M. Wells and their maple pie… snail and marrow… green salad… soft shell crab BLT…
23 Thursday Aug 2012
Here is a sneak peek at what M. Wells Dinette could be serving when it opens at MoMA PS1 next month. Whipped butter on bread with caviar and flowers remind me of the бутерброд I ate in Ukraine. I like how it’s plated on a cafeteria tray.
22 Sunday Jul 2012
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Does anyone know where I can find this fruit in New York?
21 Saturday Jul 2012
Shrimp tacos with mango and cucumber at Nixtamal in Corona, Queens ($3/taco)
Chongos zamoranos is a sweet curd dessert from Zamora in Michoacán, Mexico.
Nixtamal provides tortillas to many restaurants in New York such as La Esquina, Choza Taquería, and even Nobu. The owners, Shauna Page and Fernando Ruiz, make their own corn masa using a method called nixtamalization. The corn is soaked in mineral lime, which increases its nutritional value, allows it to be more easily ground, kills fungus, and improves flavor. In front of Nixtamal there are a few stalks of corn growing in a planter.
20 Friday Jul 2012
The man at Patel Bros. grocery in Jackson Heights, Queens told me they didn’t have any green chili powder or lime powder, but they did have this powdered mint chutney mix. The first ingredient was salt, perfect for a batch of potato chips!
I don’t have a mandolin so I used my Kyocera ceramic knife to slice the potatoes as thinly as possible.
I microwaved them for 3 minutes and then checked them to see if any were burning. I think it took about another minute before they were crispy. No oil, just non-ionizing microwave radiation!
They weren’t bad but I had to dump a lot more chutney mix and some raw green chili to make it flavorful enough for my taste. It looks like I might have to go to India after all!
17 Tuesday Jul 2012
Posted in bucket list, Mexican, New York, Queens
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A few months ago MexGrocer.com had a huge blow out sale and so I bought a real lava rock molcajete. It was kind of hard to find a real one even in New York. Many of the ones I found in Jackson Heights and Corona were decorative serving dishes made out of cement, not lava rock. It took me at least three months to season the one I bought online! I read on The Mija Chronicles that you should do a few turns of dry beans, then dry corn, dry rice, wet rice, and finally the spices. The many rounds help get rid of gritty pieces that might get mixed into your food. Today I finally got to the spices round!
I ground some garlic, dried epazote, ancho chiles, and salt. The resulting paste was very fragrant and tasty!
14 Saturday Jul 2012
Scoboco just posted this image on his flickr account. Could it really be a first glimpse of M. Wells Dinette at MoMA PS1? First they said on the website that it would be ready in May, then June, now July! I called a MoMA PS1 a few days ago and the receptionist told me that they were hoping to open in July. By the looks of this photo, I’m starting to think she meant July 2013!
17 Sunday Jun 2012
Elmhurst’s Ayada restaurant is really proud of their raw shrimp salad. Their front window is wallpapered with New York Times articles that ranked it as one of the top 100 New York snacks. It is served with raw bitter melon slices, raw garlic, and a raw carrot salad in the middle.
I thought it was nice and spicy with a great brininess, but the sweetness was missing. No balance. I wonder if the chili and lime concoction that was covering each shrimp could have benefited from a little bit of jaggery.
I will probably never order it again and I give it 6 out of 10.
Ayada
77-08 Woodside Ave
Elmhurst NY 11373
(718) 424-0844
Chinook Olive 