August 2009
3 posts
wired magazine: what's inside a slim jim? →
Well this is really fascinating, from a food science perspective. And shockingly gross if you’ve never bothered to read food labels before. As my friend David Shin, occasional late-night consumer of Slim Jims once told me, “Look Mitch, I’m eating face.” Looks like that (maybe), and then some.
chow's guide to peppers →
If you know how much I love spicy food and hot peppers, and how much I enjoy learning encyclopedic things about food, then you’ll understand why I like this guide to all kinds of peppers.
Side note: The Naga Jolokia pepper is the hottest in the world, with a Scoville rating of up to 1,040,000. For comparison, Habanero peppers (note that there’s no tilde over that “n”)...
http://www.mitchinthekitchen.com →
New blog! More cooking! Still me.
July 2009
4 posts
the making of a gyro cone →
“It’s a show and tell that is not for the squeamish. The process starts with boxes of raw beef and lamb trimmings, and ends with what that looks like oversized Popsicles the shade of a Band-Aid.”
also, murray's cheese shop makes meltshakes with... →
Van Leeuwen Cart Parks Itself in the East Village.... →
I eat this stuff whenever I can. Somebody let me know when the currants and cream flavor is back. They’ve been out at all locations the last three times I visited.
(via pavblog)
June 2009
3 posts
okonomiyaki
I had okonomiyaki for the first time when I visited Japan two summers ago, at a restaurant called Mitchan (seriously!) in Hiroshima.
The dish is a specialty of Hiroshima and the Kansai region in Japan, which includes the cities of Osaka and Kyoto. At its most basic, okonomiyaki is a big pile of batter, eggs, and cabbage cooked on a griddle and smothered with a thick, sweet-tart brown sauce....
lobster rolls sans mayonnaise
Delicious-looking photo and recipe from Gourmet. A couple weeks ago, Nicole and I discussed the lobster roll list on Grub Street. I said something about all of the featured sandwiches looking a little too mayonnaisey for my tastes. Behold, a lobster salad with lemon vinaigrette.
May 2009
7 posts
WatchHow to butcher a side of beef, with Tom Mylan. “This reminds me of anatomy class,” says John. The tenderloin is now thought of as the psoas major.
the best french toast i've ever made
I know, I’m going into recipe-dumping-mode here. But seriously, this was a marvelously delicious brunch a few weekends ago. Rosemary and bananas go very well together, as Chef Ripert has demonstrated in the past. I used yogurt in the egg mixture because I was out of milk, and things worked out just fine.
French Toast with Bananas and Pecans
for topping:
1 tablespoon butter 1/3 cup maple...
1 tag
sunday supper, volume 5: roast chicken with spring...
It was about time for us to try our hand at roast chicken again. This time, we had it with a bread salad full of spring vegetables (including ramps, those darlings of the farmers’ market) and crisped prosciutto, and drank a lower end French Burgundy (which was eye-opening and delicious to this wine novice).
Panzanella with Asparagus, Mushrooms, and Ramps
3 slices prosciutto (or pancetta...
mitch's egg salad
I really dislike egg salad made with mayonnaise. Often, the pre-made deli variety is not only an attractive den of sin for all kinds of bacteria who are ready to send you straight to the toilet with your bowels in a knot, but also blended with so much dressing (and little else) that it appears monochromatic from afar, with bits of white suspended in a sulfuric, jiggly, pale-yellow mass of yolk...
WatchPâté or dog food? Something to ask yourselves the next time I feel like throwing a cheap cocktail party. The original research paper by the American Association of Wine Economics can be viewed here. (via Marion Nestle’s blog)
1 tag
sunday supper, volume 4: harissa-marinated beef
I overcooked this big piece of sirloin tip, as you can see in the above photo. The goal was medium-rare for such a lean cut of beef, but a few careless extra minutes in the oven led to something more like medium-well. Nevertheless, a tasty marinade, caramelized cipollini onions, roasted potatoes with lots of black pepper, and a surprisingly light-bodied (a little too light-bodied) Australian...
FOOD'LEBRITIES: Fame + Food = Funny →
(via migueld)
I can’t not laugh at these.
April 2009
13 posts
a salad for unusually warm days
Tuesday’s weather was so hot that I ditched the seasonal, local, tiny carbon footprint ethos and sweatily paced the produce section of Whole Foods, grabbing as many crunchy, juicy things as I could for a mostly organic, California-farmed salad. Some days, the local greenmarket just isn’t an option. I also juiced a shriveled Meyer lemon that I hand-imported from California in early...
10 japanese sweets →
Ramune candy?! How did I not know about this until now?
Just attended a screening of Food, Inc. tonight. I thought it was a good primer on some of the major systemic food-related issues we face in the U.S. Go check it out when it’s released on June 12. It’ll get you thinking about what goes into what you put into your body everyday.
chinese food for passover →
homemade yogurt x 3
A couple weeks ago I bought a $3 tub of plain yogurt and thought, what if I make my own yogurt? Then I serendipitously came across this, this, and this.
“In fact, free range is like piggy day care, a thoughtfully arranged system...”
– Local/sustainable/humane foodies, here is your Ann Coulter. Meet James E. McWilliams. (via cathyerway)
For those of you who read this op-ed piece last week, note that the New York Times added something at the end:
Editors’ Note: April 14, 2009 An Op-Ed article last Friday, about pork,...
top chef masters lineup announced →
A new twist on Top Chef, starting June 10.
"sandwich day" sandwich revealed →
Turns out they weren’t from Defonte’s.
1 tag
sunday supper, volume 3: orange glazed pork...
Pork and fruity flavors are classic accompaniments to German Riesling, as are the spicy, salty flavors of many Chinese and Thai dishes. A dinner of spicy orange glazed pork tenderloin with garlic chive spätzle and braised napa cabbage was my attempt at marrying German cuisine with Asian ingredients to create something for a bottle of surprisingly but refreshingly sweet Spätlese. Coincidentally,...
1 tag
homemade limoncello
Last month, I returned from California with a duffel bag full of freshly picked lemons from my parents’ backyard. Juicy as they were, it was their shiny peels that I looked forward to using. For the past year and a half, I’ve been storing most of a handle of throat-burning Devil’s Spring vodka in my freezer, totally clueless about what to do with it (make a barrel of jungle...
March 2009
9 posts
common food myths, explored →
But does grass-fed beef really taste worse than corn, etc.-fed beef? Sounds more like a personal opinion than a myth to me.
the onion's food and dining slideshow →
WatchHow Alice Waters cooks eggs. I’m kind of speechless.
1 tag
sunday supper, volume 2: chorizo and white bean...
I don’t know much about Spanish food or Spanish wine, but I do know that having Spanish chorizo as an ingredient makes everything taste better. A bottle of 2002 La Rioja Alta Viña Alberdi Reserva was our starting point on Sunday. We figured we couldn’t go wrong with an earthy stew of pork, potatoes, and paprika. We were right.
Recipe:
2 oz pancetta, 1/4-inch dice 3 oz Spanish...
scanwiches →
(via xtine)
food, inc. trailer →
I’m looking forward to watching this documentary.
1 tag
sunday supper, volume 1: roast chicken
I’ve been telling my friends that John and I are starting to adopt some strange version of a suburban, childless, middle-aged lifestyle. As able-bodied, fun-loving New York City residents in our twenties, we sure do spend a lot of time cooking simple dinners at home, watching episodes of 30 Rock over and over (as I femme-crush on Liz Lemon), then going to bed at exactly 11:55 PM. Are we...
February 2009
7 posts
ben & jerry's ice cream flavors for g.w. bush →
(via e-mail from Nicole)
Hilarious. Also, someone has created visuals of some flavors.
(Previously: Yes Pecan)
50 of the world's best food blogs →
I/you could spend forever reading these.
(reblogged from cathyerway)
no reservations: the food porn episode →
A conversation I had on Tuesday:
Jeanice: mitch i saw food porn last night anthony bourdain did a whole show titled FOOD PORN me: on the travel channel? Jeanice: yep, no reservations me: damn! i really like that show but i don’t get the travel channel Jeanice: it was all food porn… music and all
Previously:
Bourdain on food porn
Momofuku, Momofuku, and more David Chang
irish car bomb cupcakes →
From Smitten Kitchen, one of my favorite food blogs.
a giant 17-pound burger, photo by photo →
Sent to me by Diana.
See also: Pimp That Snack
January 2009
7 posts
happy (belated) chinese new year
I really don’t cook as much Chinese food as I’d like to. That is going to change over the next week or so, as a result of my weekend shopping spree at Hong Kong Supermarket (on Elizabeth and Hester, in Manhattan). First up was a dish known as Buddha’s Delight (羅漢菜), so named because of its traditional consumption by vegetarian Buddhist monks. It is commonly eaten during the...
video: how to cut up a whole chicken →
today's inaugural luncheon menu →
Seafood, duck, pheasant, apple cake, and California wines.
(Previously, in 1865: Abe Lincoln’s lavish inaugural dinner menu, which served as an inspiration for the 2009 lunch menu.)
oh, honey honey
Barry Estabrook from Gourmet.com summarizes a recent article from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that tells you “organic” and other value-adding labels on honey are basically bullshit:
The USDA “Certified Organic” label for honey is, for the most part, meaningless, although you’ll have no trouble finding bottles emblazoned with it, and priced accordingly. “Like...