Just as the grillerati claim there are no good BBQ spots in NYC, it’s even more incontrovertible to state there are no cheap Korean BBQ joints. By their nature, like steakhouses, Korean BBQ restaurants are expensive. They deal in premium cuts of cloven hoofed animals peddled to ravished customers, bleary eyed from shoju and beer, [...]
The Columbian Exchange—that epic transaction between the old world and new, beginning with Christopher Columbus’s 1492 landfall in the Caribbean—produced many global changes, good and bad, not the least of which was the transfer of staple foods. Of the dishes that have their origins in this exchange, the first to spring to mind come from [...]
If the cuisine of Alexandria, Egypt is a symphony orchestra it’s rhythm section would be played by lemon and olive oil. You would definitely taste a symbol crash of garlic, brash trumpet notes of sumac and zatar, a sweet flute solo of pomegranate syrup, but the bass line? The foundation on which the harmonies are [...]
Imagine this being said in Homer Simpson’s thick-witted and salivary voice: “Mmmmmm Korean fried chicken.” Granted all fried chicken is pretty amazing. In fact, it is more noticeable when you have fried chicken that isn’t good. I could count the amount of bad fried chicken I’ve had on one hand. It’s sort of like the [...]
Leaving the (admittedly large) influence of native peoples aside, Argentinian cuisine in many ways parallels that of the good old U S of A, i.e. there is LOTS of beef. A couple factors come into play here: to begin with, you can look at the initially sparsely populated country side of each region (sparsely populated [...]
We may not have had the litany of goodies described in Hunter Thompson’s seminal book “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” but the spirit of utter and wild abandon–for a recent trip to the city of sin–was the same. My dear friend Carl was getting married last November and since he was the first amongst [...]
I do not think it would cause a great fuss to claim that, of the five boroughs in New York City, the Bronx has long been the least fashionable dining-wise. It goes without saying that Manhattan reigns supreme; Brooklyn is Manhattan’s bearded, horn-rimmed, and grittier cousin who sometimes even upstages its more renowned relation; Queens [...]
When contemplating European food, the cuisine of Serbia is hardly the first thing that springs to mind. Serbia? You mean the former Yugoslav republic? They were, like, communist, weren’t they? I thought only boring things came out of communist countries like drab apartment blocs, efficient-to-the-point-of-mechanized sports teams, and censorship? The imaginary me asking those questions [...]
There is something about the dark recesses of deep February that inspires people to get together and party. Every locale in the world with any significant Christian population enjoys the benefits of some sort of Shrove Tuesday or Carnival celebration–the million strong blocos in Rio, bead throwing and beer drinking in The Big Easy, masked [...]
Perhaps a more appropriate title for this week’s post would be Thirsty Thursday. Due to various commitments, our usual crew was unable to gather this Wednesday. I had a particularly busy week at work and was only available to engage in social activity Thursday evening, when I went out for my buddy Marko’s younger brother’s [...]
