Best milkshake in New York?

I stumbled upon Brgr yesterday, having somehow avoided any buzz or or word-of-mouth. And the days of me seeking out good hamburger restaurants are a distant memory. But as I was walking back from the art galleries in Chelsea, I happened to see they claimed to have the best milkshake in New York. Could it be true? Could a place without vowels actually have a frosty cold river of frothy, bold taste? I decided to find out. I ordered a black and white shake. They only have one size and it costs $5.50. After five minutes or so, a...

Carrot cake cupcake recipe

Since the cupcakes I made for Jennifer's birthday were such a huge success, I thought I'd share the recipe (and the modifications I made from the Barefoot Contessa's). The biggest change I made to this recipe were adding a lot more carrots, baking at 400 degrees for the whole time, and... the coup de sucre... injecting frosting into the carrot cake cupcakes. I've put up a food porn photo set from the making of. Here was the finished product (sorry for the fuzzy but the photo was taken *after* the party): Here's the recipe, with my modifications. Pretty shamefully ripped...

Burritopedia

What's with the burrito? It's conveniently wrapped to eat with your hands, but almost impossible to do so. You can stuff anything in a tortilla and call it a burrito. Of course, the burrito is as close to Mexican food as Pizza Hut is to Neopolitan pizza. It's American, which of course means it's going to be unruly and overstuffed and weird and delicious. Don't believe me? Ask the folks at Burritophile....

Getting Wet

Knowledge for Thirst, an endlessly fascinating blog of beverage taste tests, reviews everything wet. They sort out Mountain Dew Baja Blast: Mountain Dew is some crazy motherfuckers. Why would you create a ridiculously good soda and then basically hide it from the general public? They are really making a concerted effort towards market saturation these days, to mixed results. Mountain LiveWire is pretty terrible, I feel. Code Red is just OK. But Mountain Dew Baja Blast is freaking amazing and has shot to the top of my favorite sodas list. So why is their best flavor only available at...

Butchering a pig, Tuscan style

Ever want to know what goes into that rustic Italian sopressata? Ever want to go to your local greenmarket and drive away with a whole pig carcass draped over your Vespa? Here's a great article by Bill Burford about learning how to butcher a pig from Dario Cecchini, the man who inspired his Babbo-ness, Mario Batali. In one passage, Buford describes an old Tuscan recipe for the pig's hind legs, called proscuitti. You started by breaking the legs down into their major muscles, using your fingers to find “the seams.” The Maestro had taken me through the process and...

Cheeseheads, unite! And podcast!

No, not that kind of cheesehead. If you've always been afraid of the word "podcast," it's time to get over it. The husband-and-wife team of Michael Claypool and Sasha Davies are setting out to travel the country and visit artisanal cheesemakers, documenting it on their site Cheese By Hand. And they'll be producing a regular podcast. About cheese. Get those mp3 players fired up now....

Save the Pastrami!

Another Lower East Side institution has been forced to close its doors. The owner of the 2nd Avenue Deli said he closed the restaurant Sunday after a lease dispute with the building's new owners. "My current rent is $24,000 a month for 2,800 square feet,'' Jack Lebewohl told The New York Times. "They want $33,000. I can't afford that.'' Jossip's tongue-in-cheek-on-rye obit here. And sign the petition to save the 2nd Avenue Deli!...

Turducken: A fowl game of Russian dolls

Here's another unholy stop on my continuing quest to see just how much human beings can pervert the natural order: turducken. When you put a chicken inside a duck inside a turkey, and then roast it for eight hours, you get turducken (thanks to Mattthew for the reminder). I've heard of putting squab in chicken, and then chicken in turkey. But there's no name for that. There's a certain elegance about turducken. The name that fits together like a puzzle. The different birds, deboned, that fit together so snuggly with stuffing inside. I plan on using this idea behind all...

Kids getting Tastykaked

Remember high school lunches? I remember the choice: soggy gray food from steam trays, or yummy sweet goodies from the snack bar. One could spend $2 on limp pizza and mashed potatoes made from flakes (that tasted and felt more like grits), or for the same price get a bottle of Coca-Cola, three butterscotch krimpets, and a bag of Cheetos. Really wasn't a hard choice for me. The snack bar gives kids what they want, but also treats parents and schools. Schools get money for textbooks and scoreboards, and parents get lower taxes. Meanwhile, their kids blow up and feel...

This Makes Me Feel Kinda Dry-Heavey

Now you can DRINK Krispy Kremes. (Thx, New Yorkish!) (I think I'll just drink the holes, thank you.)...

God Bless the USA

What's the difference between whiskey and bourbon, you might ask. Cecil has the answer: For a whiskey to qualify as bourbon, the law--by international agreement--stipulates that it must be made in the USA. It must be made from at least 51% and no more than 79% Indian corn, and aged for at least two years. (Most bourbon is aged for four years or more.) The barrels for aging can be made of any kind of new oak, charred on the inside. Nowadays all distillers use American White Oak, because it is porous enough to help the bourbon age well, but...

Good Morning America

Harry Dean Stanton in Fire Walk with Me called fresh coffee "a cup of Good Morning America." I've recently discovered a new contender for that title, a surprisingly delicious and all-American drink to start out your day: 1 parts Beer 1 parts Tomato Juice It's tempting to dismiss this combo out of hand. Especially after I tell you that the ideal beer choice is Budweiser. I'm no fan of either of the two ingredients, but they are perfect complements. The taste is something between the two dominant morning drinks, the Bloody Mary and the Mimosa. It's basically sparkling tomato juice....

The real thing may be dying, but the fake ones are everywhere

The death of the French bistro....

Finding the Carbs Within

Sick of all the anti-carb hysteria? The Amateur Gourmet has compiled a short list of ways you too can celebrate the carbs within and, um, solve some interpersonal issues as well. [Thx, The Morning News]...

An Open Letter to America's Pizza Retailers

Dear Pizza People of the United States, Pizza, as we have come to know and love it, has been long been a staple of the American diet. I, for one, salute your tireless innovation and dedication to the customer. Through the years you've given us myriad variations in crust thickness and density. You've found more receptacles for mozzarella than we ever dreamed possible. You pioneered the pizza delivery, the pizza buffet, the tiny plastic implement that holds the box lid off the top of our steaming pie. You gave us somewhere to spend Friday nights in our small Southern hometowns...

I almost did this with Zagnut bars once

Woman buys 10,000 Mars bars, drives off in limo...

Sushi omakase

All this time I've just been shoving sushi in my mouth without knowing how to properly order and eat the stuff. Should one put sushi in one's mouth with the fish or the rice on the tongue? Look to the Japanese character for "delicious" and you'll have the answer. Sushi etiquette....

Mint Julep Recipe

It's Derby time, so don your white suit and pretend you're either Colonel Sanders or Tom Wolfe, depending on your level of sophistication and how much you like fried chicken and/or modern architecture. Here's an old-fashioned recipe for an old-fashioned race: 2 cups granulated sugar 2 cups water (branch water is ideal) Fresh Mint Crushed Ice Kentucky Bourbon (2 ounces per serving) Make a simple mint syrup* by boiling sugar and water together for 5 minutes; cool. Place in a covered container with 6 or 8 bruised mint sprigs. Refrigerate overnight. Make a julep by filling a julep cup* or...

Ice Cream Socialism

In case you missed free cone day yesterday at Ben and Jerry's (or honestly, even if you didn't), Baskin-Robbins has their own free scoop night tonight from 6-10pm. When will Laboratorio del Gelato have a free sample night? DG has happily fattened quite a few guests with our own easy ice cream recipe. It's for a semi-freddo, which is Italian for "stays soft as silk while in the freezer and melts perfectly on your taste buds." I usually make it with candied ginger bits in it, but you can exchange the ginger with anything really. The hardest part about this...

Bronx Pasta Ecstasy

Remember the media brouhaha when Brooklyn's Grocery restaurant received a Zagat score of 28, putting it in league with Manhattan's culinary elite? Grocery's co-owner said "I don't think we're doing earth-shattering food. We're just a really good restaurant." I haven't been to Grocery, but this sounds like a pretty good description of Roberto's Restaurant in the Bronx, too. In a world apart from the stroller-pushing yuppie cool of Smith Street, Roberto's is a ten-minute walk from the Bronx Zoo through Boogie-Down's Little Italy. Manhattan's Little Italy is a safe and tourist-supported stage set of what was once an exciting and...

Needing the Dough

We've seen Larry David bribing a Maitre d' to get a table at restaurants on Curb Your Enthusiasm, and his surrogates on Seinfeld trying to do the same. Gourmet finds out if it works in real life. I've never bribed my way into a restaurant. I've never slipped a C-note or greased a palm. In truth, I've never even considered it. I've assumed, of course, that people do such things. I've seen my share of Cary Grant movies. I've heard — and wondered whether such old-fangled gestures would work in the high-stakes, high-hype world of New York City restaurants. For...

How much can a chicken take?

If the chicken nuggets shaped like stars weren't enough of an indignity, now Burger King has created an internet chicken slave for the public to boss around. This is the worst thing to happen to poultry since Chixon....

Eating Samosas At The Epicenter

Going out to eat and drink in New York City, especially if you're a bit of food reviews junkie like myself, there is always this lingering feeling that there's someplace hotter and hipper than where you are. But as I stood in the upstairs bar area at Spice Market in the Meatpacking District last Saturday night, after Amanda Hesser published a rave review in Wednesday's New York Times, I realized I was at the epicenter of the buzz. And a word to the wise, at the epicenter of the buzz, everyone is staring at everyone else trying to determine if...

Phatwood

I will never buy lighter fluid again! Sunday I went to a cookout and was introduced to fatwood -- a more effective and environmentally friendly way to start up a charcoal grill, camp fire, or fireplace. Fatwood Sticks vs. Lighter Fluid: made from renewable resouce:resin filled pinewood stumps made from non-renewable petroleum smells pleasantly of burning wood smells of old garages and gas stations burns easily and steadily,leaving coals hot creates a brief fireball,leaving coals unaffected $4 per box:enough to start at least six fires $2 per bottle:enough to start at most two fires as harmless as a stick(except more...

Cancerous Curry?

Oh no! One of my favorite Indian dishes, chicken tikka masala, frequently contains "excessive levels of three chemicals linked to hyperactivity in children, allergies, asthma, migraine and even cancer." And here I thought that glowing atomic red color was just a symbol of its yummyness, like the appealing pink of Hostess Snoballs. Wait a minute... could they be bad for you too?...

Don't balk at single malts

Now that I'm recovered from inadvertently poisoning my body with one deadly toxin, it's time to pour another one in. For those in NYC, there will be a "live-online" Islay scotch whisky tasting at d.b.a., 41 First Avenue, this Sunday (3/14) at 4pm. Editors from Slate, the New York Times, and NPR will be there for commentary and insight. A bunch of reporters drunk at a bar and calling it work? Yeah, that's never happened. Be sure to read Slate's introduction to the wonders of peat before you go....