FUSSYlittleBALLOT 2.0 – TJ’s Explained
The response to day one of the FUSSYlittleBALLOT 2.0 was very exciting. Today I want to step back a little bit, explain a bit what I’m trying to do here, and answer your questions and concerns about the first two items of the ballot.
There are a lot of reasons I write the FUSSYlittleBLOG. Despite all my griping about the area, it is my sincere wish to improve the quality of life in the region. Personally, I think improving a city’s food does more than just satisfy people’s palates. I can save the soapbox talk for later. Maybe All Over Albany will even let me borrow theirs.
This poll plays a role in that effort by attempting to expose people to some of the places that are truly the best in the region. Case in point, chezjake who says he’s a regular reader of Table Hoping (the major food blog in the region) says he had not even heard of three or four of the restaurants on the slate. That’s a problem.
Having a Trader Joe’s open in the region is consistent with the larger goal of the blog. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people who live around here stock up on their favorite TJ’s staples whenever they are returning from a more civilized city. It is disheartening that we do not have one, and perpetuates the perception that Albany is a Podunk town.
But that is just for starters.
FUSSYlittleBALLOT 2.0
Today I am feeling optimistic. I’ve already seen some positive support for the FUSSYlittleBALLOT 2.0 from some unexpected places.
What is this ballot? Well, let me tell you.
Every year the Times Union has a reader’s choice poll to determine the best things in the Capital Region. And every year the results are a combination of frustrating and embarrassing. In a region where there are magnificent sandwich shops, truly wonderful small family-run Italian establishments that have been fixtures for generations, Subway should never even be a contender. Except year after year it takes the first prize.
We are also fortunate enough to have a truly world class bakery that a major national food magazine once called the best bakery in America. And I’m with them. However, this temple of pastry and handcrafted bread didn’t even crack the top three of last year’s results.
So instead of getting angry at the results every year, I had another plan. What if a bunch of like-minded food lovers could put aside their trivial differences about which place was actually the best and agree to vote on a set of places that were among the best our region has to offer. This collective action could truly have the potential to sway the results of this poll. After all, in 2010 there were fewer than 19,000 ballots cast. A voting block of even a few hundred could have some influence around the edges, and a voting block of a few thousand or more could have a major impact.
The following is my attempt at a slate of businesses to rally behind.
While on some level my personal judgment was used to evaluate the criteria about what made the list and what didn’t, these aren’t exclusively my picks. I too have made sacrifices for the sake of the common good, and if I were voting on my own, the slate would look decidedly different.
Admittedly, there are a few entries that may seem a bit odd. Upon viewing them you may find yourself saying, “We don’t have a Trader Joe’s here. Why on Earth is Daniel B. suggesting I vote for them, twice?”
In the days and weeks to come, I will spend some time talking about the decisions that led to these choices. For now, if you have any hesitations about voting for this slate, let me know and we can discuss them here (or in private if you prefer).
Just remember, for this to work, we have to stick together and vote as a group. It also cannot just end at you. So please pass my message of hope and change along to anyone who will listen. And should you not want to vote for the entire slate, I can understand that. But the categories I care about most are highlighted below.
Thank you for your consideration.
Better Butter Battle
The Jewish Food Festival is today, Sunday April 9 3. Depending on when you are reading this and where you live, there may still be time to drive to Schenectady and eat all the tasty things they have in store for you there. One of those tasty things is challah with butter.
Guess who is bringing the butter?
Buying the butter for the battle was an adventure in itself. And what better place for a butter adventure is there besides Adventure in Food Trading. I love these guys. And I was hoping to buy all the butter with them, but I ended up with one case instead of two. Yes, I bought a case of butter.
But when you are buying one of the world’s most delicious butters, a case can be as small as five pounds. All in all, I’ve got fourteen pounds of butter to Leah the Nosher’s fifteen loaves of challah. I’m kind of curious to see who will make a bigger dent in their stash of food. However, that is not the battle I was referring to. The battle is between the butters themselves.
The FUSSYlittleBALLOT 2.0 is Coming
This is no April Fool’s joke. This is deadly serious.
Every year around this time the Times Union opens up their Reader’s Choice poll for the Best of the Capital Region. And today is the first morning you can vote. Even though the poll runs for three weeks there will be some people who are chomping at the bit to get their ballots submitted today.
Last year Mr. Sunshine got his vote in early, and wasn’t able to participate in this initiative.
I don’t ask much of you, and I don’t ask often: Please do not vote until you read my post on Monday morning. On Monday the FUSSYlittleBALLOT 2.0 will go live, and I will ask that you give it your serious consideration before casting your vote in the Times Union poll.
Let me explain what this is all about.
Dunkin’ Drives me Nuts
I don’t get it. I really don’t. And I’m hoping someone can help me understand this. I’ve talked about Dunkin’ Donuts in passing here and there over the past couple of years. But I have never come out and said it explicitly.
Dunkin’ Donuts really sucks.
It sucks in a way beyond simple mass American fast food chains. Because McDonald’s still has delicious French fries, Wendy’s has the Frosty, Taco Bell has a bean burrito that actually resembles nutritious food, and Auntie Anne’s makes some tasty soft pretzels drenched in fat and salt. Even White Castle’s “burgers” are a magnificent delivery device for onion-flavored beef fat.
But Dunkin’ Donuts doesn’t have good anything. In fact I view what they sell as both an insult to donuts AND to coffee.
Speaking of Caramel
Yesterday’s post about caramelizing onions reminded me of one of the most crucial things anyone interested in cooking needs to learn: knife skills. I really like what the guy behind Corduroy Orange has to say on the matter, and I think he has a great novice-friendly approach to explaining and teaching his methods.
You can now find a convenient pathway there via a new link listed under the Important Food Resources section of the blogroll. By the way, holy cow that’s a long blogroll. I may have to start segregating the less active blogs into some kind of X-File at the bottom of the list. But that will have to wait for the time being.
As long as I’ve got your attention on the right side of the page, you might notice the new box at the very top right. That’s there so I don’t have to mention [you-know-what] again. Mrs. Fussy thought all the talk of the [thing in the box] was starting to get a little tedious. So today is a completely [you know] free day.
While I was revisiting Corduroy Orange searching for the link to advise you how to cut onions so that they caramelize evenly, I happened upon a post from earlier this month. Apparently there was a news story that I missed all about caramel. But this isn’t caramel that’s made in a pan, it’s caramel that’s made in a lab. And some of it is pretty nasty stuff. Plus it happens to be in a ton of things.
Not Quite Spring Onions
Everything relates to Jewish food. And even if it doesn’t I’m sure I can find a way to make a connection. It’s probably just because I’ve got the Jewish Food Festival on my mind. Not only will this be my first year in attendance, but I’ll also be manning my very own table with Leah the Nosher. We will have the classic Jewish pairing of challah and butter.
I should call her, and check in.
One of the Jewish foods that was a staple of my childhood was my mother’s brisket. I always loved my mother’s brisket. It was a sweet and savory long-braised and tender affair, and I think back on it with nothing but fond, delicious memories. We would have it for all of the special Jewish occasions, but I always associate it with Passover.
I’m not so sure what she would think about my sharing the secret ingredient. But the truth is that it was never so secret. Because everyone’s mom had the same secret ingredient at the time: Lipton onion soup mix.
No doubt it is easier and quicker than caramelizing onions from scratch, but caramelizing onions is one of the easiest, tastiest and most rewarding things you can do in your kitchen. Especially now.
Drinking Syrup
Be forewarned, today is going to be a bit of a stretch as I try to tie together all kinds of unconnected ideas into one coherent post.
Don’t forget, it is less than a week away from the eighth annual Jewish Food Festival at Temple Gates of Heaven in Schenectady. I’m tempted to describe it as “death in the afternoon,” since the adult admission price of $15 entitles you to four hours of all you can eat blintzes, brisket, chopped liver, challah with butter, rugelach and other healthy treats.
But I’m really most excited about the egg creams made with Fox’s U-Bet. For years I’ve called it “The chocolate syrup of my people.”
Maybe it has to do with the season, because syrup has been on my mind a lot. Just yesterday morning I wrote about Rhode Island’s famous coffee syrups. Then later in the day I met up with Albany Jane, Albany Kid and Capitol to Capital for my first-ever visit to a maple syrup sugar shack.
It was awesome.
Autocrat Eclipse
Regional foods rock. Taking a road trip across the great highways that crisscross this nation can be a stupefying expression of sameness. Each exit has the same gas station, fast food parlors, and shops. And it’s not even just on our highways and byways. For years the corner of Haight and Ashbury had a Gap and a Ben and Jerry’s.
So it is truly amazing in the America of today that there are still a few dedicated pockets of regional foodstuffs. These are treasures that have both withstood the influx of national brands while at the same time haven’t been tempted themselves to stray beyond their local roots.
The thing I miss most about Miami is the Cuban food, and specifically the feel of the local Cuban cafeterias. Whenever I’m in Pennsylvania I try to get some scrapple with my eggs. A trip to Connecticut isn’t the same without stopping in the original New Haven Pepe’s for a coal-fired clam pizza.
My mother knows of my love for these things, so on my last trip to Providence she sent me home with the ingredients required to make the Official State Drink of Rhode Island: coffee milk.
Links Love Lost
Barbeque. Light of my life. Fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Bar-be-que. The tip of the tongue taking a trip down the palate to stop, on three, on the teeth. Bar. Be. Que.
Suffice it to say, I love the stuff.
From a truck, on a piece of waxed paper, Jewish style (aka pastrami), eaten with fingers, in sandwiches, served at restaurants with actual silverware, made from pigs, cows, chickens, goats or what have you. I appreciate the regional differences, but I would be hard pressed to choose between a killer Texas brisket and a dynamite Carolina pulled pork.
There are a few criteria that I do believe all good barbeque shares. And those all come from the low and slow use of heat and smoke that melts tough raw fat into an unctuous buttery goo that enriches the meat, deeply flavors the protein with a clear and well-defined pink ring of smoke, and tenderizes some of the toughest cuts to the point where the muscle can still hold a bone, but a modest pull will pull the bone cleanly from the flesh.
Barbeque isn’t health food, so when I eat it, I expect it to be good. It’s hard to find good links. But when Dinosaur Bar-B-Que opened in Troy I thought their links were among the highlights of the menu. I had been meaning to get back there for a while to enjoy a meal dedicated to this smoky delight.
Yesterday was the day, but it didn’t go quite as expected.
FUSSYlittleBLOG 