Playing It Fast And Loose In Manhattan
Manhattan. It’s just one part of New York City. There are four other boroughs dammit. Still, I’m always tempted to call it The City whenever I visit.
For someone who cares about food and lives an easy drive away, it’s a place where I haven’t spent much time eating. Most of my eating life has been centered around the West Coast, so the entire New York City food scene is still a bit of a mystery to me. And usually, when I make it down there, it’s to see family.
While they are happy to humor my indulgences a little bit, the trips are never as food-centric as they might be if I were left to my own devices.
The sad reality is that any dedicated eating trips down to NYC are going to be few and far between, since I’ve dedicated myself to the Capital Region, for better or for worse. Anyhow, those excursions would barely scratch the surface of all the things I want to eat. Once again I’m reminded of the tragedy of my life, “I want to eat all the things, but I can’t eat all the things.”
This past weekend I at least got to eat some of the things. And got a reminder that Manhattan’s reputation as a great food city needs a big fat caveat that it rarely ever receives.
November 2009: Thankful For Exposure
You’re still here? I thought that because it was Thursday, you would have had the good sense to stay away. After all, this is the seventh week in a row that I’m pursuing the FLB TBT project. It was a bad idea in the first place, but now I’m committed.
Perhaps I’ll reconsider after I complete week twelve and I’ve made it through the first year of posts on the blog. Because the idea here is to see where the blog has been, how it got here, and what we missed. In doing so, I’m hoping to reveal what has changed, which ideas are still relevant today, and find a bit of inspiration for posts that still need to be written.
While this exercise is useful for me, it seems to drive people away. Maybe it’s the color coding, but I think the key is intuitive, and I’ve made the colors themselves much less jarring (thanks to reader input).
In November 2009 I broke away from my computer and started doing things in the real world on behalf of the blog. Most notably, I was invited to my first media event for the opening of Albany’s first Chipotle. This led to a lot of extra exposure for the FLB, including mentions in the big local pop-culture blog and even a hit in the major local paper. Of course being a judge in the All Over Albany Tournament of Pizza didn’t hurt either, especially after the winner was announced and the judges participated in an online video interview. Man, this was a fun month.
So how did it break down day by day? I’m glad you asked. But before we jump into the daily summaries, you may want to refresh yourself with the color coded key.
Tour de Wings – Schenectady Edition
I don’t know when I’m going to start eating more reasonably. But I know it’s going to be sometime after March 5, because that is the Tour de Buffalo Wings – Schenectady Edition. Hopefully you marked the date back in January when I first announced the 2016 FLB winter tour and opened the floor up for nominations.
This tour is going to be a bit different from past outings. Hey, it’s fun to mix things up a bit. So how is this going to work, and what are these tours all about anyway? I’m glad you asked.
The Bettering Of Coffee
A few weeks ago, I walked into Superior Merchandise Co. and found Ron Grieco from Stacks Espresso geeking out with Matthew Loiacono about coffee beans, and speculating about who was sourcing what from where.
These guys are my coffee heroes. Maybe heroes is the wrong word. They’re the Capital Region coffee champions. I don’t know if I like the sound of that either.
Recently, I’ve been reviewing the history of the FLB. And in doing so, I’ve been reminded of what the Capital Region was like less than a decade ago when we first arrived. Back then there was not one single place where you could go and get a reliably good cappuccino. Not one. And it’s highly likely that readers choice polls listed Dunkin’ Donuts as the region’s best coffee.
Let’s stop for a moment, and be thankful for how far we’ve come. And then I’ll let you know what’s going on to make the local coffee scene even better.
My Struggle With Open Mindedness
My tongue takes two days. I’m modifying the technique that chef Josh spelled out in his recipe a few months back. But the idea is the braise the crap out of it. Chill it. Slice it. Sear it.
The smell in the house is intensely beefy. I’m loving it. But you know who isn’t? Mrs. Fussy. She hates tongue. The very notion kind of turns her stomach. And I guess that’s understandable to a certain extent. Everyone has their issues.
There’s an old story though that Raf used to tell me about going out to eat with his dad. The two of them would go to fancy restaurants. A lot. And after a while, to make these outings more interesting, Raf would find the thing on the menu that looked least appealing, and order that. His logic was that if the chef could transform something that sounded unpleasant into something delicious, than the chef must be a great talent indeed.
I’ve seen this play out in my own life. Some friend of mine bought a kangaroo steak and we cooked it up on the grill one night. It was vile. Seriously bad. The meat was gamey, and greasy, and tough. It had no redeeming qualities whatsoever. It would be very easy to say after that experience that kangaroo meat is not my thing.
But put in in the hands of Dimitrios at The City Beer Hall, and it’s transformed into something quite special.
So here’s the question. When do you keep trying something to see if you’ll like it. Or how do you know when to just give up and throw in the towel? Let’s talk about a few more examples, and then I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Party With the Profussor
When did I get to be so social? I blame the job. At one point, I could just hang out in my mother’s basement and spit vitriol and frustration all over the interwebs. Ok, fine. That never happened. Well, at least the part about my mother’s basement. All the vitriol and frustration I used to spout came from my very own house here in the suburbs of Albany.
But it is true that I didn’t used to go out nearly as much as I do now. But the kids are getting older and more independent. Plus part of my job is now throwing parties, and attending other great community events.
So with that in mind, there are a few things coming up that I think you should know about.
October 2009: Deli Daze & Pizza Ways
Welcome to week number six of the FLB TBT project. Have I mentioned lately how stubborn I can be? I’m still kind of convinced this is a terrible idea. However, I really want to look back and review what I’ve written, and chart the arc of the blog to see which ideas have stood the test of time
But that takes a lot of time. So I figured as long as I was putting in the work, I might as well make it into a post.
We’ve learned a lot so far. The blog started with a bang taking shots at the paper and raking up muck. Then I took a vacation, and lost a bit of momentum. But I came back swinging getting back to tackling serious issues about restaurants and criticism.
What’s the big takeaway from October? This was after all the first fall I was writing the blog. And fall is usually a great time to be alive in upstate New York.
The blog was getting beginning to get some legitimacy. I had scored a coveted honor, of being named a judge for All Over Albany’s Tournament of Pizza. That meant I got to expand some of my thoughts on pizza on these pages. However, the plurality of this month was about Jewish Deli. It’s a long story, but suffice it to say, there will never again be ten days of posts on a single subject leading up to an interesting event.
So how did it break down day by day? I’m glad you asked. But before we jump into the daily summaries, you may want to refresh yourself with the color coded key.
FUSSYlittleBLOG 