Getting Shucked at Jimmy's No. 43

Just shucked and ready to eat

Have you ever wondered about oysters before?

Me neither.

But I got a big oyster education from oyster growers Karen Rivara and Jim Markow at Jimmy’s No. 43 in the East Village. Karen and Jim shucked over 600 Peconic Pearl and Mystic oysters for the hungry and inquisitive crowd as they explained all there is to know about oysters.

Turns out oysters are pretty interesting little buggers. Case in point: Oyster reproduction. Turn on some Barry White and dim the lights....

Oysters are protantrous hermaphrodites who fertilize externally and change from male to female and sometimes back again. In fact you can’t distinguish male from female until fertilization when females release large numbers of eggs in comparison to males which release a small amount of sperm.

Oysters vary in taste and appearance depending on where they are grown. Jim’s Mystic oysters, from Connecticut’s Mystic River, had a noticeable green hue to their shells whereas Karen’s Peconic Pearls, from Long Island’s Peconic Bay, did not.

Top and right: Notice the green hue on the Mystic oyster shells.

Karen explained it takes about 2 years to get a nice quality oyster to market. Consistency in growth and taste is a big part of the oyster business. While oysters are growing in hatcheries, its important to separate the fast growers from the slow growers. Fast growers will consume all of the nutrients around it and you want to make sure the slow growers are set aside to have a chance to catch up.

Karen and Jim grow their oysters in hatcheries so you can eat them year round, not just during months ending in the letter “R” as the adage was from the days when refrigeration was an issue.

Oysters are alive until you open them, so its best to eat oysters right away. Eating them straight up, perhaps with a little lemon, is recommended because you want to experience the freshness and taste of the oyster on its own.

Ice prolongs the death process after shucking

For those that can’t host their own shucking party at home, you can personally taste some of Karen and Jim’s oysters at Grand Central’s famous Oyster Bar or the Blue Water Grill in Union Square.

I also want to take a moment to say thanks to Jimmy Carbone, owner of Jimmy’s No. 43, for his hospitality. Though my only contact with him prior to the event was via email, it was easy to figure out who Jimmy was in person once I got into the bar. He’s the jovial guy working the room, chatting up new patrons and greeting friends with a warm hug. He knows everyone and everyone knows him. I introduced myself and was immediately welcomed into Jimmy’s world and let me tell you its a nice place to be. Thanks Jimmy!

Edible Queens and The Queens Food Scene

Anthony Bourdain and Eric Ripert grace the cover

of Edible Queens' first issue

The Edible Winter Warm Up was the first event for new magazine Edible Queens. Hosted by Long Island City’s LHaus residences, the event blended local Queens food with prime real estate in a way I never dreamed possible.

Rather than drone on how the event was also an open house for Lhaus’ luxury units, lets just get down to the nitty gritty shall we?

This event was about three things:

1. local Queens restaurants, cafes, and food artisans

2. The Queens Food Scene panel discussion

3. Book signing for Astoria based writers Tamara Reynolds and Zora O’Neill, authors of Forking Fantastic! Putting the Party Back in Dinner Party.

Tamara Reynolds of Forking Fantastic!

A dozen or so vendors had tasting portions available, but I’ll just mention a few.

Soon to be opening cafe/wine bar/market, LIC Market offered up a tangy tapenade and crostini. It was my first bite of the day and it proved to be the best.

Manducatis Rustica served up bites of tasty escarole pie and their Rustica puff with coffee cream. While the puff pastry itself wasn’t that memorable, the subtle coffee cream shined through.

Rustica Puff with Coffee Cream

Escarole Pie

Bareburger provided little cups of thick peanut butter and vanilla milkshakes using only organic ingredients. But dear God....please tone down the peanut butter. It was like getting a beat down from Mr. Peanut himself!

Gisella Civale of Dolce Nonna spoke to me about her marinated and pickled appetizers. She proudly practices her grandmother’s heirloom canning recipes and is exceedingly passionate about her Italian food heritage. I asked what her best seller was, and she said the eggplant, string beans and peppers were selling equally well and there is no front runner at the moment.

Dolce Nonna's jars of peppers, string beans, and eggplant

The panel discussion really wasn’t a discussion, as it was a semi-rambling hour long list of better and best foodie locations in Queens.

The panel featured:

Joe DiStefano: (Panel moderator) Food writer and Edible Queens blogger

Josh Ozersky: former Restaurant Editor for Citysearch and Editor of The Feedbag

Lee Ann Wong: Former Top Chef Contestant, producer and Astoria, Queens resident

David Cook: New York Times food writer and Eating in Translation blogger

Zora O’Neill: Co-author of Forking Fantastic, food and travel writer and Astoria, Queens resident.

From the discussion, I got the names of glorious hole-in-the-wall joints serving the best Egyptian kabab, Pork Souvlaki, and Halal Merguez in Queens. Thankfully, I’m not vegetarian.

The key takeaway from the discussion is that Queens has an authenticity and flavor all its own with restaurants offering ethnic home cooking from all over the world.

And in case you were wondering about those Lhaus residential units....I took the complimentary tour.

Devils on Horseback at The Spotted PIg

Devils on Horseback Photo by Elizabeth M. Shaw

(Everything is Better With Bacon Blog)

Locals flock to West Village gastropub The Spotted Pig for phenomenal food. Friday's happy hour was no exception. Holly and I scored choice seats at the bar and sipped on pints of Captain Lawrence Pale Ale, watching as countless plates of chargrilled burgers with Roquefort cheese and piled high shoestring fries breezed past us. Soaking in the warm surroundings, there is an aroma of sauteed onions lingering in the air.

Everybody wants some of this

Photo courtesy of ABCNews

With stomachs grumbling, we tried one appetizer before heading out to dinner a few blocks away.

But what to choose?

We debated between chicken liver toast and the deviled egg before settling on devils on horseback.

Originating in the UK, devils on horseback is a "darker" version of angels on horseback (oysters wrapped in bacon). Behind the unusual name is a profoundly sweet and savory hors d'oeurve.

It features whole prunes stuffed with sliced pickled pear, wrapped in bacon, dusted with chili powder, and broiled until it becomes a pure indulgent fantasy.

Though I can't attest to the joys of the Roquefort burger, devils on horseback is a must try because it's soothing and boasts a sweet and smokey flavor combination that blows other bacon wrapped appetizers right out of the water.

Introducing the Ya-Ya Network: Food Politics and Spoken Word

Food Politics.
Spoken word.
Teenage activism.

Put them together and you have my introduction to the Ya-Ya Network.

The Ya-Ya Network is a citywide anti-racist, anti-sexist organization that allies with the LGBTQ community and is staffed by young activists aged 15-19.

My friend Michael and I sat our extremely old 30 something selves in the back of row at Bluestockings, a radical bookstore and activist center on the Lower East Side. We were surrounded mostly by 18 year olds.

First a few words about Bluestockings, which is the BEST bookstore in NYC for alternative titles…

Bluestockings has ironic and politically motivated T-shirts, a slew of books on topics including anarchy, gender studies, class & labor relations, race/cultural studies and sexuality along with scads of events for all demographics and a free trade café to boot!

Now, back to the Ya-Ya’s.

Sharmin Hossain, Jennifer Lee and another teen led the food politics discussion getting the young audience to debate hard questions such as:

Where does my food come from?
Why can’t I find healthy food in certain neighborhoods?
What role does the government play in our food supply?
Why is fast food cheap and organic produce expensive?
What international issues affect our food supply?

The teens and young adults shared their challenges with food, money, and making the right choices about what to eat. For the teen visiting from upstate NY, she can get good produce from her local farmers market. The teen raised in Canada could get better quality meet than in the U.S. And the teens in Jamaica, Bed Stuy, and South Bronx know there are larger socio-economic factors at play that explain why they are surrounded by bodegas and fast food.

Once the discussion was done, it was time for spoken word performances. A veteran spoken word performer spit into the mic, Jennifer gave an acoustic performance of a Joni Mitchell song, and Mustafa and two other Ya-Ya members read some original poetry.

All in all it was a good night.

For more information on the Ya-Ya’s click here. You have to give them a big round of applause for being one of the few groups made up primarily of youth of color who are active in the counter-military recruitment movement.

For more information on Bluestockings click here.

Upcoming Event: Brooklyn Taco Experiment - Jan 31st

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Brooklyn Taco ExperimentSunday January 31, 2009 1-5pm

The Bell House 149 7th St, Brooklyn, NY 11215

Tickets On Sale Now! Open Call To Chefs!

Advance Tickets: $20 Day of Tickets: $25

One Beer Included with TicketFree After Party in Front Lounge

Cookoff enthusiasts Theo Peck and Nick Suarez present New York's premier culinary competition, the Brooklyn Taco Experiment. Inventive amateur chefs will create various tacos ranging from savory to sweet. Best of all, free tortillas will be supplied by Tortilleria Chinantla for all competing chefs! The audience, along with an esteemed, culinary judging panel will select their favorites and huge prizes and cash will be awarded to those who strive to be the next cookoff king or queen. Do you have what it takes? This promises to be another sold-out cookoff and perhaps one of the greatest taco events that NYC has ever seen!

Judges Andrew Knowlton (Iron Chef Judge and Bon Appetit) Cesar Fuentes (Executive Director of the Food Vendor's Committee of Red Hook Park) Dave Vendley (Calexico)
Brandon Gillis (Bark Hot Dogs) More TBA....

Tunes by DJ KilahertzA portion of ticket sales will help support Ovarian Cancer Research
Please visit http://www.thefoodexperiments.com/ for more information.
Contact Email: thefoodexperiments@gmail.com

Who are we? Nick Suarez and Theo Peck are both serious cookoff competitors,

turned into food competition hosts. We have held three successful SOLD-OUT cookoffs in 2009 - Beer, Cheese and Chocolate - and have recently been recognized by the Brooklyn Paper as some of the 20 people to look out for in 2010. We have many more exciting Experiments planned this year, including an upcoming Egg Experiment and are currently working on a pilot episode of our Food Experiments for TV. Happy cooking!

2nd Annual Chili Cook off at The Habitat

Chili Wranglers

A mere 3 minute walk from my apartment led me to neighborhood favorite The Habitat -- the smallest bar ever to host a food event. But never fear, they pulled it off smoothly.

Co-owner Nicole Orlando gave me the low down on the event. She disclosed this event had a hilarious award for the worst chili -- the Turd award (a $25 bar tab). Now that’s something I’ve never come across on the amateur cook off circuit. I hope the idea catches on. The Habitat also awards an audience first place and a chef’s choice award.

Guys love chili

10 chilis competed against last years winner, making a total of 11 chili samples to chow down on.

I was unable to cast my Turd vote as I couldn’t find one that was, shall we say, exceedingly crappy. The chilies were all pretty damn good even though most played it safe with heat and overall flavor. One did have high marks for a deep smokey flavor, one was overly sweet, and one had enough heat to make my lips burn. The rest generally blended together in a whirlwind of warm comforting chiliness.

Stackable chili cups

Wearing red t-shirts, the chili competitors were easy to identify as I moved into schmooze mode.

First time cook off contender Brad used bison in his chili. I chatted with him and his sister Erica about bee keeping, chicken raising, and rooftop farms in Brooklyn. Yep, we’ve got ‘em all.

Check out all the beers on tap for such a small bar

Another first timer I met was Dan with his fiance Erin. Dan told me his chili consisted of beef, pork and lamb with spices from around the world including Saigon Cinnamon. Then he stunned me by saying he and Erin were relocating to Vermont in another year or so to start their own organic poultry farm. Very cool.

Competitors at The Habitat didn’t have to sling the chili themselves. Two helpers took care of that task leaving the 11 competitors free to chill with friends, drink and talk chili with me.

Word of Mouth: Online Media & the Future of Food Writing

L eft to Right: Andriani, Erwin, Levine, Powell, Hesser and Stubbs

A sizzling food writing event kicked off the first in a new series of food literary events presented by Housing Works bookstore in Soho.

Food writing pros Ed Levine (Serious Eats.com), Julie Powell (Julie & Julia), Amanda Hesser & Merrill Stubbs (Food52.com) and Cathy Erwin (Not Eating Out in New York.com) wrangled themselves up to discuss the present and future of online food writing with moderator Lynn Andriani of Publishers Weekly and its “Cooking the Books” e-newsletter.

Discussions centered around big questions including:

How has online food media impacted food writing?

What does the death of Gourmet magazine mean for the future of food writing?

Can online and print food media successfully coexist today?

Long time food writer Ed Levine delved into the “old days” when food writing was controlled by a dozen or so gatekeepers at powerhouse publications such as The New York Times, Gourmet, and Food & Wine. What makes today’s food writing so exciting and terrifying to Ed, is anyone can be a food writer. He also acknowledged that his writers starting out at Serious Eats.com are incredibly talented and passionate about food writing for being as young as they are.

Former food editor for The New York Times Magazine, Amanda Hesser addressed the pro’s & cons of online food writing including no word counts (a Pro) and that your words never die (a potential Con). Amanda’s Food52.com partner Merrill Stubbs chimed in on the immediacy of online writing today (which can be a pro or con).

Cathy Erwin and Julie Powell discussed the different paths they took as food bloggers to reach the same end point - a book deal. Back in 2002, when blogging was in its infancy, Julie had no idea that her blog would lead her to become a famous writer. In contrast, Cathy intentionally her blog to her advantage and leveraged herself into professional food writing.

When debating whether online and print media can peacefully coexist, Ed Levine pointed out that Ree Drummond aka “Pioneer Woman”, the wildly popular blogger and cookbook author, is the ultimate success story. Both her blog and her cookbook have given her a cult-like following with each form of media reinforcing the other.

To Cathy Erwin, the future of food writing is exemplified by Food52.com’s social networking features which allows for conversation among participants online with the end result of the food recipe contest being a published cookbook.

In the case of Pioneer Woman and Food52.com, both connect the reader to the authors and give readers a crucial, and much appreciated voice.

Breaking News: Van Leeuwen's Ice Cream Coming to Greenpoint

Van Leeuwen's is coming to Greenpoint

Its starting to spread across the blogosphere this afternoon...

Van Leeuwen's Artisanal Ice Cream will be setting up shop in Greenpoint next month right off the Nassau stop on the G train.

That is some great news to start a weekend!

Michael Pollan reading his new book: Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual

Michael Pollen, the wildly popular food activist and award winning author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food, spoke and read from his slim new book Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual at the Barnes and Noble in Tribeca. His talk was filmed for a future segment on Democracy Now!, a collaborative media website you can visit here.

Being a remarkably short book for Pollan, Food Rules is his attempt to cut to the chase and simplify many of the complex ideas surrounding food and nutrition.

His book identifies 64 rules, each with a paragraph long description, divided into into three sections that reinforce his concise food manifesto: Eat Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants.

Three of the 64 rules are:

• Don’t buy food advertised on TV.

• Eat food made by humans, not corporations.

• Don’t eat anything your grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.

Pollan also focuses on 3 simple facts:

1. Populations eating a Western diet develop chronic diseases.
2. Traditional diets around the world producing healthy populations are very diverse in nature.
3. Getting off of a Western diet will improve your health.

To explain his second fact, Pollan cited the Inuit in Greenland who eat a high fat diet of seal blubber. Africa’s Maasai eat a high protein diet of blood, meat, and milk. Central America’s indigenous groups eat a high carbohydrate diet consisting of corn. All three of these traditional diets fail to produce the epidemic rates of heart disease, cancer, and diabetes which plague Western populations.

Pollan concluded with a powerful statement that culture has as much to teach us about nutrition as science. And by culture, Pollan was referring to the food ways of your grandmother.

My 1 Year Blogging Anniversary

I didn't make this cake, but the photo sums up my sentiments exactly.

I’m shouting it from the hills (or rather my apartment in Brooklyn) that today is my 1 year blogging anniversary.

Never thought I’d make it this far when I sat down last January 3rd, and put up a silly post about Holy Toast.

In honor of my big anniversary, I’d like to ask you dear readers (who I track, so I know I have a lot of readers lurking and never posting) to post a comment or drop me an email to say hi. Feel free to let me know what you liked this past year, what you hated, what bored you, or what events you’d like to see in the future.

To celebrate my anniversary, I’ve complied a David Letterman-like list.

Nora’s Top 10 List of Memorable Foodie Moments (on and off the blog)

10. Another season watching Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations on the Travel Channel.

9. Spilling a goat cheese and arugula pierogi down the front of me on a first date. Yep, I'm pretty smooth.

8. Responses on my two negative event reviews. Yes, event organizers find my blog!

7. Saturday mornings buying fruit/veggies at the Union Square Greenmarket.

6. Chatting with Wiley Publishing cookbook editors Gypsy and Jana at the PRSA Food Blogger event.

5. Mitch Feinberg’s stunning food photography at the Design of Food Presentation.

4. Cooking up pot stickers for the masses at the Dumpling Festival.

3. My friend Holly and I dining at JoeDoe. Best meal I had this year.

2. Listening to Judith Jones talk and do her Julia Child impersonations

And my # 1 memorable foodie moment is.....

1. Butchering classes with Jeffrey Ruhalter.

I’ve had a blast with the blog and wanted to say thanks for reading and a special thanks to everyone who I’ve met and written about. I'm looking forward to another year of new food adventures!