Restaurants: August 2003 Archives
I've been eating out a lot, and no one place was really very exciting, but I'll sum them up here:
We had eggs for dinner. Do I feel guilty about it? No.
I sauteed the leftover diced chorizo and added leftover sauteed diced onion and bell pepper. I broke up some eggs in a bowl and added salt and pepper, then poured that into the skillet with the chorizo. Toasted some tortillas in another nonstick skillet and served it all together.
The Key Food that's across Queens Blvd from us was terrible three years ago when we moved in. Dirty, slow (this is relevant, I promise). It's really improved, though, with faster, more helpful checkout people and nice, clean aisles with good variety. (I do still object to their produce section. They prepackage everything, so you're forced to buy six apples when you buy apples, or two dozen jalapenos, and you don't get to select each individual one yourself.) Shortly after the blackout they put up a sign that read that all their dairy, meat, etc, is new. So I felt OK buying eggs and milk last night. It seems like another sign that their management is really trying, too. (I know this seems like a long tirade about a regular old grocery store, but I cried when I saw my grocery options here. The gourmet stores are great, but not always convenient. The regular grocery stores are small and crowded, not well organized, lack selection, etc.)
One of Todd's favorite foods is chorizo, that smokey, spicy Spanish sausage. I diced up some chorizo and sauteed it to cook out a little of the fat. Removed the sausage from the skillet, then I used to that flavorful chorizo fat to sautee diced green pepper and onion. Mixed it with the chorizo, then layered shredded Monterey Jack and the chorizo mixture on flour tortillas. Folded the tortillas in half, then cooked them to brown the tortilla on each side.
I did use cheese in this, and thought it smelled a little off, but Todd insisted it smelled fine, and I'm sure I was just being paranoid. We both ate it, and neither of us is sick today. (The cheese is necessary to hold the whole thing together.) This was really good, especially if you get the tortilla crispy.
We have no food in the house: We returned from Durango late Tuesday, and hadn't found time to go to the grocery store when, on Thursday night, NYC lost power along with a good chunk of the northeast. I guess it 's kind of a blessing: Instead of worrying about food going bad in our fridge, we finally have a defrosted freezer, which until Friday morning had a three-inch layer of ice all the way around.
I had made a trip to Amy's Bread during my lunch break Thursday, so I lugged a round loaf of sourdough with me when I joined the walking throngs during the most congested rush hour ever.
Yesterday morning power returned at 8 a.m. for us, so restaurants weren't open for breakfast and the grocery store was just opening its doors. What do you buy when you know the market has been without power for 16 hours? We bought olive oil and tomatoes to make bruschetta with bottled artichoke hearts and the sourdough, plus doughnuts, a cantaloupe and nondairy creamer for breakfast. I've spent so much time shopping the perimeter of the market that I don't know what to buy when I suspect that all the fresh stuff is spoiled.
And how long do I need to wait until I can be sure all that bad stuff is out of the shops? I'm suspicious of all the dairy, meat, poultry. Will eggs be OK? Maybe just not used raw for a while. What about our favorite little cheese shop? I think some cheeses would be fine, but how much of their inventory will they lose? I'm counting on fresh fruits and veggies as a saving grace, but the market we go to never has a very appetizing selection. Maybe the trains are running today and we can take a trip to the farmers' market.
It's really amazing that such a huge loss of power turned out to be nothing more than an enormous inconvenience for most of the millions of people affected. I'm glad all I have to complain about is the possibility of some foul-odored milk or chicken. Maybe I'll find some cooking inspiration in Union Square.
Do I have to say this? I almost hate to do it. I was passing through Madison Square Park at lunchtime today, so I stopped by the hot dog stand to try their New York hot dog. I had tried the Chicago dog a little more than a week ago.
I think it's kind of overrated. I know, it's a hot dog, so how great can it be? But with all that stuff on top, you can hardly taste the dog. The New York dog comes with a big gooey mess of onions, sauerkraut, mustard and ketchup, which kind of hides the hot dog taste and texture (maybe that's the point, but if you don't like hot dogs, you just shouldn't eat them).
The Chicago hot dog is kind of nice. It also has a little too much stuff, but it's fresh, clean-tasting stuff, like lettuce, tomatoes and hot peppers, neon green relish and atomic yellow mustard. The crunchiness of the toppings is a nice contrast to the snap and bite of the meat (am I allowed to call it meat?).
That's not to say I wouldn't be there often if I worked in the area. And the price is really right for both. I'm just finding that I might be a bit of a hot-dog purist. (That's quite a contradiction in terms, isn't it?)
Do I have to say this? I almost hate to do it. I was passing through Madison Square Park at lunchtime today, so I stopped by the hot dog stand to try their New York hot dog. I had tried the Chicago dog a little more than a week ago.
I think it's kind of overrated. I know, it's a hot dog, so how great can it be? But with all that stuff on top, you can hardly taste the dog. The New York dog comes with a big gooey mess of onions, sauerkraut, mustard and ketchup, which kind of hides the hot dog taste and texture (maybe that's the point, but if you don't like hot dogs, you just shouldn't eat them).
The Chicago hot dog is kind of nice. It also has a little too much stuff, but it's fresh, clean-tasting stuff, like lettuce, tomatoes and hot peppers, neon green relish and atomic yellow mustard. The crunchiness of the toppings is a nice contrast to the snap and bite of the meat (am I allowed to call it meat?).
That's not to say I wouldn't be there often if I worked in the area. And the price is really right for both. I'm just finding that I might be a bit of a hot-dog purist. (That's quite a contradiction in terms, isn't it?)
