An Effing Foodie

Baroque-O Loco Moco!

A non-Baroque-o Loco Moco

What happens when you put a hamburger, 2 polarizing meat products, fancypants gravy, rice, tree sap and 2 LA stoner/chef/surfers together?

Baroque-o Loco Moco!

Animal opened in June 2008 [in Montauk, NY] and has been packed since — one of the breed of gleefully carnivorous restaurants to flourish in recent years. Its giddy, sophisticated-stoner sensibility is best represented by the Foie Gras Loco Moco, a riff on a Hawaiian surfer dish. It consists of a hamburger, a slice of fried Spam, a wedge of seared foie gras and a quail egg, all teetering on a bed of rice and topped with teriyaki sauce, maple syrup, bordelaise and Sriracha.

            - NYT (links and emphasis mine)

Torn, I am.  Teetering.  I wouldn't kick it out of bed...but could I live with myself if I paid $35 for a loco moco?  COULD I???

Props to Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo for shoving pig nethers into East Hamptonians and Los Angeleans, of all people!

They don't mess around: Pigs ears, belly and cheeks, sweetbreads, chicken liver, poutine, head cheese, kimchee, foie gras, Spam, and a chocolate/bacon dessert all commingle into one gutsy (harhar) weed-out-the-weak menu of rare depravity.

No critter is safe.  MUAHAHAHAHA!

Bring Me...The Plate: Daddy-O, West Village, NYC

Tripping on a good bar is one of the things I love best about NYC.  Granted, I was guided here by a roving group of revelers almost a year ago, but every time I've found myself in the neighborhood, this little place was just packed.

Daddy-O is a happy conglomeration of 3 things you almost NEVER see together in a Manhattan Bar anymore:

1. A long list of cocktails that are well-made and balanced, but not priced to the point where you'd have to call the barkeep a "mixologist".  Cheers!
2. A short menu packed with reasonably priced barfood that's tasty, filling, and skirts the line between gritty and precious.  It's a cheeky kinda greasy that's easy to love, and the kitchen is wide open until 4 AM.
3. A lit wall PACKED with brown liquor: If you're a whiskey whisperer, this little corner bar has got your back.  Aforementioned cocktails include commendable quaffables that embrace bourbon, scotch, and dark rum.

Soft-Spoken Feisty Lady and I wandered in around dinnertime on a Friday evening, during a rare, blessed lull, so our experience with the service is probably not what you're going to typically encounter.  Go early, or on an off-day, and you can expect a steady stream of libations and eats from laid-back-yet-attentive servers.

I've only heard about the legendary Garbage Plate of Rochester, but being that it shares the same basic dish-DNA as a plate lunch, it's a reference I've carried near my heart, and is on the list of roadfood goals (along with the original buffalo wings from Anchor Bar).

So when I glanced on an item called "The Plate" on Daddy-O's short menu, my Spidey-senses tingled.  We were in the presence of a homage to the Garbage Plate!  Granted, SSFL and I were supposed to be on our way elsewhere for dinner...

...but the power of The Plate could not be denied.

Eat These Nuts!

Ya gotta love it when food marketing reads like ED spam.

Dinner in a Twitter: Whole Wheat Mentaiko Spaghetti with Green Beans, Scallions and Egg

Apparently, Twitter is the new bacon.

Attention from the NY Times marks the beginning of the end for any hot fringe-trend, but this cynic was impressed by Lawrence Downes’ endearing article on Twitter recipes.  His effusive exposition of Maureen Evans’ super-spare recipe realm was a welcome tweak on the nose for bored by-the-book cooks and blathering foodbloggers (cough) alike.

Evans' Twitcipes are subtly complex and sophisticated—in 140-character bursts, she makes clear that she’s well-traveled, kitchen-confident, but not cocky.  She’s got no bread handicap (home cook hierarchy is arguably based on the successful domination of yeast), does multi-culti sweets AND savories, and could get a willing participant out of a mac-n-cheese rut quicker than Mark Bittman can warm up.

Downes' headlong energy and Evans' encapsulated charms were downright inspiring. So without further ado, I present to you my Twitcipe debut*:

MentaikoPasta: Boil 1srving WWspghti&7-min egg. Blanch 1hndful grnbeans(cut1"). Slice egg(1/4s)&toss all w/1pckt sauce +slicedscallion&nori.

Oh c’mon.  Don’t act all surprised.  OF COURSE it’s going to have a key ingredient that most of you will find narsty—some of you because mentaiko = pollock/cod roe, others because it’s processed convenience food, and still others because it's Japanese convenience food (hooray, Kewpie!), and therefore uber-unlocal.  All of you can suck it. 

I love mentaiko and tarako in their raw, unadulterated forms...which tend to spoil before I can finish them.  Squeeze-packets of shelf-stable stuff is what I like to keep around for rainy days.  If you want the genuine article, here's a legit recipe from the far classier Chubby Hubby.

While I may lack the understated grace and worldliness of Ms. Evans, I do not lack a nutritive, unami-rich dindin.  Cheers!

*Nope, I don’t have a Twitter account.  I just thought this would be funsies**.

**You know what else is funsies? Watching Maureen "Snarkypants" Dowd get TAKEN DOWN while trying to takedown the founders of Twitter.  This made my day:

[M. Dowd, NYT]: If you were out with a girl and she started twittering about it in the middle, would that be a deal-breaker or a turn-on?
[B. Stone, Twitter founder] (dryly): In the middle of what?

LeftoverMania: Power to the Pantry!

Arrgh, sorry for the absentee blogger crap, folks!  I'm in the midst of a bit of food-related ennui.  The inevitable amusing side effect: Playing with the more mundane rotating residents of my friggy.

Observe the cornered foodie, spinning her wheels at home.

Exhibit #1: Rice Vermicelli with Sliced Lamb and Mint
(AKA Instant Noodles with Leftover Chops and Frozen Veggies)

Elements (per bowl):

• 1 package instant rice vermicelli, preferably onion-flavored
• 1 leftover medium rare lamb chop, thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup frozen corn kernels
• 1/4 cup frozen whole-leaf spinach
• 1 sprig fresh mint, chopped
• Shichimi togarashi pepper to taste

In my defense: The super-salty onion-flavored soup stood up well to the gaminess of the lamb, whose medium-rare state gently wandered over to medium-well whilst bathing in its sodium bath (not unlike pho!).  Corn brought sweetness to the party, spinach (washed and frozen by moi!) helped to alleviate my vegetable guilt, and the mint was a welcome illusion of freshness.

Verdict: No one is too good for instant noodles.  Drink lots 'o' water to avoid sodium shock.

Exhibit #2: Pea and Shittake Risotto with Soft-Poached Egg and Pecorino
(AKA Reincarnated Chinese Takeout Rice Jook with Frozen Peas and Dried Mushrooms)

Elements (per bowl):

• 1/2 carton leftover Chinese takeout rice
• 1/2 (14-oz) can chicken broth
• 1/4 cup frozen peas
• 1/4 cup dried, sliced shittake mushrooms
• 1 egg (cage-free and vegetarian, please!)
• 1-2 TBSP. butter
• Pecorino, freshly grated, to taste
• Kosher salt and black pepper, freshly cracked, to taste
• Chili-spiked sesame oil to taste

In my defense: This was actually more like Asian rice porridge than risotto, except for the shot in the arm it gets with the butter and cheese.  The bubbly, broth-sucking napalm is an ideal medium for reconstituting hard white rice and dried mushrooms, thawing frozen peas, and poaching an egg to an appealing ooziness in no time.  Pepper and chili oil help to give an edge to all this richness.

Verdict: Don't think the Asians at large or the Italians would be eager to claim this porridge puppy, but that's fine by me and my well-warmed belly.

Feats of Food Marketing: "Canadian Bacon"

One of the joys of New York: Finding deliciously marbled, frankly labeled cured flesh at your local Polish-Korean-Latin Market.

Exhibit 1: "Canadian Bacon"

...AKA...

Caprese Confessions

It’s funny how much eaters have in common--with all the choices that we have, we're still privy to certain consumption cues.

Cold Weather = Braised Meats, Bean Soups and Chili, Stuffed Cabbage, all permutations of potatoes, Guinness, bourbon and Scotch. 

Hot Weather = Corn on the Cob, BBQ, all things grilled, raw fish, watermelon and strawberries, rum and vodka.

So I guess it’s no big coinkydink that in the height of tomato time, Mark Bittman was feeling the Tomato Paella, and I was obsessed with something vaguely less refined:

In August and September, I was eating this at least once a week. What is, you ask?