Posts for November 13, 2012 -- Grub Street: New York Magazine's Food and Restaurant Blog

Posts for November 13, 2012

11/13/12 at 6:05 PM
Leftovers
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Jeepney’s New Menu; FreshDirect Delays Post-Sandy Deliveries

• December means Chanukah, and Chanukah means latkes (among other important things). And in these days, when food inspires near-religious devotions, BAM hosts the Fourth Annual Latke Festival to celebrate and showcase the best of New York's potato pancakes. Participants include Blue Ribbon Brooklyn, Kutsher's Tribeca, the Vanderbilt, and BAM's own café. Tickets and more details here. [Grub Street]

• Jeepney debuts its late-night menu this weekend. The Filipino gastropub will now serve food until 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights. [Grub Street]

• FreshDirect announced it won't be able to deliver groceries to some parts of the city until after Thanksgiving because of trucks damaged in Hurricane Sandy, "traumatizing" New Yorkers who have come to rely on the service. Takeout spots: You've been warned. [Gothamist]

Alobar turns one, the Greenmarket comes back.

11/13/12 at 5:45 PM
Video Feed
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Watch This Man Grow Wheat and Make His Own Udon Noodles

By Hugh Merwin

Japanese noodle culture in the U.S. is evolving to a point where there are all kinds of custom varieties hitting the market and we're getting to know our ramen chefs on a first-name basis. Elsewhere, soba noodles are getting steamed and gaining steam, and now there's this Perennial Plate video, which depicts Shimizu San, a man who's been hand-making udon noodles the same way for the last 45 years. The chef grows his own wheat, which has a season, and mills it too. In addition to being beautiful, this video could be yet another noodle lesson for us: In other words, everyone is udon it, so why can't we?

Oodles of noodles.

11/13/12 at 4:55 PM
Inedible
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Dried Bat or Baby Rats: Which Would You Rather Not Find in Your Food?

By Hugh Merwin

Mikey likes it!

This is a trick question, obviously, because the answer is both: Chemischen und Veterinäruntersuchungsämter in Stuttgart, Germany (via Improbable Research) has just gotten back the lab results on that dried up old bat someone found in their box of frosted Mini-Zimties. It turns out the bat just picked the wrong place to hang out in between bugs and got held up inside of the already-opened box. "The food is disgusting and obviously no longer edible," they note. Meanwhile, in western Sweden, a woman opening baby food for her child was horrified to find three baby rats mixed with the fruit puree. That food was also obviously no longer edible. [Improbable Research, The Local]

11/13/12 at 4:40 PM
Grub Guide
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On Ice: New York’s Sixteen Most Impressive Seafood Platters

By Julie Ma

The presentation at Jeffrey's GroceryPhoto: Courtesy of Jeffrey's Grocery

As we move towards the holidays, and all the group dining sessions that come with them, Grub Street is in search of food that's festive — and there aren't many restaurant options more convivial than icy tiers of fresh oysters, just-shucked clams, lobster claws, and the like. How perfect, then, that a top-rate seafood plateau has become a menu staple in New York. Here are some of the most striking newcomers, and some stunning picks from the old guard, too.

11/13/12 at 4:10 PM
First Look
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First Look at the Dalloway, Now Serving Oeuf Cocotte and Short Ribs in the Old Lani Kai Space

By Hugh Merwin

The Don the Beachcomber-style drinks at Lani Kai in Soho have been replaced with a cocktail named for To the Lighthouse at the Dalloway. The tiki bar's replacement opens tonight. New owners Amanda Leigh Dunn and Kim Stolz have busy and illustrious careers, but are perhaps best known for their time on reality television shows The Real L Word and America’s Next Top Model, respectively. During renovations, Stolz and Dunn replaced 300 plants from the restaurant with bookshelves, then added long wooden communal tables and new lighting and "industrial finishes" to the space. The cozy fireplace is still there, however, and in addition to a large menu of starters like flatbreads and tacos, ex-Noche chef Vanessa Miller is cooking portions of comfort food like glazed short ribs, lobster tagliatelle, and oeuf cocotte with grits, chanterelle mushrooms, chorizo, and brioche. Check it all out, ahead.

To the lighthouse!

11/13/12 at 2:50 PM on Grub Street LA
Clown Questions
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Bozo the Clown Restaurant Concept Sounds Like a Mess Hall of Nightmares

By Hadley Tomicki

Nothing creepy about this.Photo: MichaelTutton/Flickr

Restaurant News reports that a Bozo the Clown-themed restaurant and entertainment complex is now under development from Dave Corriveau, the president (and "Dave") behind the Dave & Buster's chain. Yes, that very same Bozo the Clown that you and everyone else hasn't thought about in over a decade. Family-friendly BozoWorld will serve as a circus-themed venue for kids to hold their birthday parties, play games, and generally go bonkers, with plans to "revolutionize indoor family entertainment." Sounds like a good idea, except for one thing: An all-clown restaurant sounds like it will be a pure terror factory for today's kids.

11/13/12 at 2:35 PM
Video Feed
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Bourdain’s CNN Show to Be Called ‘Parts Unknown,’ Gets Its First Promo

By Alan Sytsma

The first promo vid for Anthony Bourdain's new CNN show is out, and it looks a lot like No Reservations. The show, called Parts Unknown, is all set to debut this spring, and from the look of things, there isn't a single Cadillac in sight. And a quick programming note: Bourdain will be on Piers Morgan's show tonight to talk about the project. Watch the teaser, straight ahead.

11/13/12 at 2:10 PM
Never Say Noodles Again
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Adam Roberts Will Never Call Michael White’s Pasta ‘Noodles’ Again

The blogger more or less known as the Amateur Gourmet has written a second book. Called Secrets of the Best Chefs: Recipes, Techniques, and Tricks from America's Greatest Cooks, it's exactly what it sounds like, and at Eater National, Adam Roberts explains his cross-country research process, complete with a visit to Alice Waters's Meyer-lemon-filled Berkeley utopia and Harold Dieterele's kitchen at Perilla. It turns out that Michael White doesn't like it very much when you refer to his pasta as "noodles." Go figure. [Eater National]

11/13/12 at 1:30 PM
The Future
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GrubHub Introduces New Delivery Tracking Options

One minute food-delivery service GrubHub introduces a "Track Your Grub" feature, and then the next we're smack dab in the middle of a dystopian Schwarzenegger movie from the eighties wherein delivery cyclists all ride around with microchip implants but only one of them has two hours to save the disheveled foodies of North America from some kind of thermonuclear meltdown while also falling in love with a beautiful and plucky refugee from the Interzone. Until then, however, iOS and Android phone users in six cities can sign up to get text messages and find out when their lo mein has left the station. [PCMag]

11/13/12 at 12:20 PM
Video Feed
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Watch the Trailer for The Fruit Hunters, Featuring Guava Fiend Bill Pullman

By Hugh Merwin

Three years in the making, Yung Chang's feature-length documentary The Fruit Hunters takes many cues from author Adam Leith-Gollner's 2008 book The Fruit Hunters: A Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce and Obsession. The movie tracks a group of rare-fruit addicts, essentially, who scale mango trees with bare feet and travel the globe in search of husks, pith, and whatever the seed-filled equivalent of the Loch Ness Monster is. Among the obsessed is ~~President~~ actor Bill Pullman, who says encountering a spread of exotics is not unlike "the way your drug dealer will sit you down at the table" to introduce a sample spread of opiates and narcotics. Screenings of the movie will start on November 23 in Montreal, with hopefully many more to follow. Click on through for the sweat, sap, and a lot of the most beautiful fruit you have ever seen.

11/13/12 at 11:30 AM
Truckin'
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Food Trucks Keep on Truckin’

In the last two weeks, food trucks have served a staggering 120,000 free meals in areas damaged by Hurricane Sandy. Tailgate the New York City Food Truck Association here to see where they're going next. [NYCFTA, Earlier]

11/13/12 at 11:00 AM
Ding Dong Apocalypse
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Twinkie Trouble: Hostess Facing Liquidation

By Hugh Merwin

Snack-food giant Hostess says ongoing negotiations with its bakers have come to an impasse that will force the company to close three of its bakeries and eliminate 627 jobs total, CNN reports. Hostess workers at 24 of Hostess's 36 factories have been striking since last Monday; the company has been negotiating with the baker's union on and off since presenting a plan to emerge from bankruptcy earlier this year. Liquidation would not only affect Twinkies, Ding Dongs, Sno Balls, and the iconic, squiggly CupCakes, but possibly also Sunny Doodles, Yankee Doodles, Ring Dings, and Yodels, because Hostess owns one-time competitor Drake's. Twinkie the Kid, where are you now? [CNN, Earlier, Related]

11/13/12 at 10:30 AM
Thanksgiving
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Assemble the Ultimate Hipster Thanksgiving

By Monica Burton

Smoked turkey pairs well with PBR.Photo: Noah Fecks

Thanksgiving conjures images of Norman Rockwellian domestic bliss, but anyone living in New York knows the food scene these days is about bold flavors, DIY authenticity, and locavore sensibilities. There's no need to stray from these tenets on Turkey Day — we've sifted through the best à la carte takeout options around town and put together an entire Thanksgiving spread full of hipster charm.

11/13/12 at 09:40 AM
The Dark Knight's Dough Rises
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One Reason Why Motorino Is So Awesome: Batman Works There

By Hugh Merwin

He's Batman.Photo: Motorino/Twitter

When the power went out and the mixers were off, Matthieu Palombino of Motorino made vast amounts of pizza dough by hand and opened his East Village restaurant to raise money for the Red Cross. The restaurant has sent hundreds of pizzas and more than 1,000 loaves of bread to the Rockaways during the last week. If you're wondering how they're pulling it all off, it turns out that Motorino has been getting extra help from Batman, seen here working the toppings, and here with the 900-degree oven wilting his cowl. Now it all makes sense. Let's hope he was able to keep all that pizza off his face. [Motorino/Twitter, Related]

11/13/12 at 09:00 AM
Who Run the World
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These Five Women Chefs Are Some of Brooklyn’s Finest

By Hugh Merwin

Raij in charge.

Brooklyn Exposed names Jean Adamson (Vinegar Hill House), Alex Raij (La Vara), Elizabeth Falkner (Krescendo), Zahra Tangorra (Brucie), and Rachel Graville (Iris Café) as five notable chefs who kick ass, take names, and are generally taking the borough's restaurant scene in all sorts of new directions. Because of competition and holdover attitudes, some women chefs say they have it pretty rough, but all of them want to keep on cooking more than anything else. [Brooklyn Exposed, Related]