making food simpler
When you just don’t know what to make for dinner, head out to your local greenmarket. Farms are producing at their peak in much of the country right now and all that bounty is just waiting for you to bring it home.
If you don’t have a country or beach house to go to, don’t feel sorry for yourself! Even without a barbecue grill, staying in town for the summer lets you enjoy the city when it empties out on weekends. Summer eating in New York means more than picnics in the park. Outdoor food (and music) festivals as well as liquor tastings and special prix fixe meals are available in every borough. There are events of all types and cost, from free street fairs to expensive plated dinners. The ones that caught my attention are listed below.
Even before the solstice on June 21st, the unofficial start of summer is the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party which returns to Madison Square Park this weekend (6/10-11). Last year I wrote about this event after the fact but this year want to give you enough notice so you can make plans to get there. Not only is there delicious barbecued food – pit masters from all over the country will be there smoking and grilling – but also there is almost continuous musical performances from folk to country to rock leading up to the final performance Sunday afternoon by Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes. Because many of the stalls were out of food by the time we got there last time, we will definitely head down earlier this time.
For whiskey aficionados, Whiskey X (Brooklyn Cruise Terminal at 6pm on Thursday, June 8th) will include pours from over 60 vendors plus food truck snacks and music. If the entrance seems pricey at $50-75, know that most whiskey events of this kind are even more costly. You can get 20% off tickets with code WHXTONY Just make sure you aren’t planning to drive home!
If your preference is hard cider, Pour The Core: Brooklyn (Brooklyn Expo Center on June 10th) is the place to sample all types of cider from more than 40 makers. Cider making in this country has come a long way in recent years beyond leaving that 1/2 gallon of fresh to ferment in the fridge! There will also be food trucks and seminars on making and drinking cider.
This weekend’s other options:
The Extra Crispy BreakFestival on June 10th from 12-8 (Industry City in Brooklyn) celebrates all things breakfast from more than 20 vendors, with food and drink as well as music, games and dancing.
The Green Festival Expo on June 10-11 (Javits Center) includes vegan, raw, vegetarian, non-GMO and macrobiotic foods as well as farms, artisanal producers and panels on subjects like the path to better eating, plant-based nutrition, school lunch and more.
Broadway Bites pop-up food market (with dumplings, bbq, fried matzo, desserts and more from local chefs and makers) which runs June 1-July 14th (Greeley Square).
Vegan Street Fair on June 10th with $4 bite-sized portions from vegan and vegan-friendly restaurants and vendors (playground at Columbus Avenue and 77th Street).
Upcoming:
The Museum at Eldridge Street sponsors a food block party on June 18th. Their Egg Rolls, Egg Creams & Empanadas Festival will feature Lower East Side (Chinese, Jewish and Puerto Rican) fare, mahjong, language and cooking demos and klezmer and Peking Opera performances.
The Grand Bazaar, which took over the Sunday Flea Market on Columbus Avenue, will be sponsoring several food events this summer including the Summer Ice Cream Blizzard on July 16th from 10-5:30 and the Famous Food Festival “Taste the World” on June 25th from 10-5 with tastes from venders of international foods.
On Sunday, July 23 from 2-7, you can try Jollof, a rice, tomato and spice dish from West Africa at the eponymous Jollof Festival on Bridge Street in Brooklyn. There seems to be some debate about whether it originated in Nigeria or Ghana but whichever, it sounds delicious. Tickets are $12 in advance (you buy from the venders of your choice) or entry plus 5 samples for $25.
Slow Food hosts a monthly happy hour to talk with its leadership about, of course, slow food. This month it will be on the 26th from 7-9 in the garden of L’Albero Dei Gelati with a 50% discount on drinks. For a bit more ($121 but it benefits the Urban Harvest Program), Slow Food NYC is collaborating with Rouge Tomate Chelsea on a 5 course (with wine) farm-to-table dinner from 7-10.
You can get some good deals on prix fixe meals during French Restaurant Week (really weeks) from July 7-16th at, for course, French restaurants around town. And for a wider variety, NYC Restaurant Week Summer 2017 is scheduled for July 24-August 18 (again, weeks) with reservations being accepted from July 10th. Prix fixe lunches (3 courses) will be $29 and dinners $42. Although you don’t always get the creative food on a menu, it is a good way to try some of our otherwise very expensive restaurants.
The 2nd Annual A La Carte Food & Culture Festival on July 30th 12-7 (Brooklyn Commons) will feature the cuisine of the Black Diaspora. Their Facebook page describes it as showcasing Caribbean, Haitian and African food and will include chef demos, face painting and drumming.
Summer in New York may be hot and grimy but if you have some fun and tasty events to look forward to, it is a little more enjoyable. See you out there!
There is often a line to get into the Levain Bakery on west 74th Street (near Amsterdam Avenue). And not just a couple of people – a long line – one that oddly rivals the line outside our local soup kitchen! It is so long, in fact, that they have a “cookie line-cam” on their website so you can see how long it is at any moment. Although they sell, among other items, a good sourdough boule, tasty walnut raisin loaves, rustic ciabatta and a decent cup of coffee, Levain is known for their fist sized cookies. They sell 4 varieties – chocolate walnut chip, oatmeal raisin, dark chocolate chocolate chip and dark chocolate peanut butter chip. So when I passed by and there was no line, I stopped in to see if their famous $4 cookie could be worth it.
The chocolate walnut chip, which won a throw down with Bobby Flay, by the way, was developed to satisfy the appetites of the 2 female owners of the bakery when they were training for an Ironman competition. This is a big, dense mountain of a cookie but slightly wet inside and very sweet. If you like eating raw cookie dough, you will probably like this cookie. My husband, who prefers dark chocolate and drinks his coffee black, stopped eating after 2 bites, declaring it to be cloyingly sweet. I agreed but somehow managed to finish mine. I thought it was dense and flavorful but too sweet even for my taste. I don’t buy cookies much anymore or even eat much sugar so I may be out of practice. And I pay more than $4 for plenty of things so, although it seems like a lot, it is a huge cookie and price is relative. If you have a very sweet tooth, this is the cookie for you, except it would be best shared. According to myfitnesspal.com, each cookie is a whopping 563 calories. And, of course, taste is personal – there are gazillions of people who love this cookie so much they are willing to wait on line for it or pay to have it shipped.
I wouldn’t necessarily buy the chocolate chip walnut again, or the dark chocolate chip, which although darker chocolate tasting, is still super sweet. But I will patronize the bakery both because they bake good bread, are a local business and they donate whatever doesn’t sell each day to City Harvest to feed the hungry, a mission we can all appreciate and support. I might, however, choose to shop at their location on Frederick Douglas Boulevard and 116th Street, as there was no line whatsoever when we walked by last weekend. Levain isn’t revealing its secret method anytime soon but if you love their cookie and search online, there are plenty of copycat recipes out there. And those whole wheat walnut raisin rolls toasted – yum!
It used to be that if you were catching a train at Grand Central Station and needed something to eat, you could grab a bagel at Zaro’s, some nuts at Hudson News or hunker down for a meal at the Oyster Bar. In recent years, the lower level food court has been upgraded and improved but I wouldn’t eat there by choice. The high- end marketplace on the Lexington Avenue side of the station, anchored by Eli Zabar’s and including a nut shop, fish market, coffee shop, flowers, cheese and charcuterie is well stocked but it is quite pricey. I would buy bread or a gift there but nothing else really beckons to me.
I’m happy to report there are new grab and go and dine-in options in Grand Central. Claus Meyer, the Danish restaurateur who opened a chain of bakeries and Noma (voted best restaurant for several years running) in Copenhagen, recently turned his culinary talents to bringing Scandinavian food to New York. Starting with a pop-up patisserie, now brick and mortar, and a coffee roaster in Brooklyn, he has now tackled Manhattan. Lucky for us, he opened the Great Nordic Food Hall this summer in half of Vanderbilt Hall, the old Grand Central waiting room on 42nd Street, a bakery and deli near the IRT subway, a “hot dog” (really sausage) kiosk, and Agern, a high end restaurant focusing on local and seasonal food and drink, which I haven’t tried yet but hope to find an occasion to do so.
Since finding the Meyer Bageri (the bakery) at the Great Northern Deli, I have detoured whenever in the neighborhood or taking the train or the shuttle (just down the hall) to buy a sourdough or whole grain rye bread and, full disclosure, the raspberry bars – they are heavenly! Full of freshly made raspberry filling and sweet, buttery pastry, they are a reason to take the train. After sampling the delectable almond poppyseed twist and flaky, creamy maple pecan Danish, I didn’t dare try their gluten-free valrhona chocolate brownies but they look fantastic. The deli also sells sandwiches, drinks, bags of granola, cookbooks and gift items, in case you forgot a little something, either as a hostess gift or to eat while waiting for or riding a train.
Next door to the deli is the diminutive but well designed and very tasty Danish Dogs. These are not traditional hot dogs but for $8 you have a choice of 4 kinds of sausage on an in-house made hot dog bun with abundant and interesting toppings including lingonberries, beet remoulade, cucumber salad, sorrel leaves and fried onions. Just remembering the delicious chicken sausage assemblage I ate there makes me want to return in a hurry! Until 10:30 every morning (when it is really too early to be seen eating a hot dog), this counter serves made to order $7 omelet sandwiches.
The food hall is appealingly spare, in neutral tones with a calm vibe (remarkable considering its setting) and includes a bar, coffee counter and kiosks for sandwiches (both open face Danish style smorrebrod and regular) and baked goods. There are plenty of tables for eating what you purchase as well as a sit-down, full service cafe for salads and hot food. Over the summer, my husband and I tried several sandwiches, drinks and desserts – all were excellent, including the coffee (from Meyer’s Brownsville Roasters.) Our favorite was the celeriac sandwich (thinly sliced celery root, green apple and walnut ($10) on a flavorful in-house made whole grain “hoagie” and the above mentioned hindbaersnitte, the raspberry bar so good my mouth waters just thinking about it.
The philosophy behind the food hall is as attractive as the food displays. The lowest paid employees start at the living wage of $15/hour with benefits – what other casual dining arena in New York can say that? Food is actually locally sourced and well raised, there is a feeling of quality over quantity, and although it is busy, the food hall is a pleasant place to sit and have a coffee, lunch or drink at the bar. It is not that the food is less expensive than what I could find in the downstairs food court. It’s just that it is so much more appealing on so many levels. Instead of just grabbing the least “bad” thing I could find while running for a train, the Nordic Food Hall is a place at which I will plan to eat often and intentionally.
Finding a decent place to eat while driving on the highway is often a challenge. Recently, I met my mother for lunch in Danbury, Connecticut on a strip of road that one could find almost anywhere in the country running alongside an interstate. There were plenty of chain stores, gas stations and and I thought our choices for lunch would be between the local diner and a sub shop. Happily, I was wrong.
I am often leery of online reviews – you need to read them questioningly. This time a little research in advance proved rewarding. Yelp and TripAdvisor steered me to Mezón Tapas Bar & Restaurant, set back slightly from the hum of route 6 on one side and the roar of I-84 on the other. Inside there was music playing (which they very accommodating turned down when my mother asked them to) and plenty of space between tables. The restaurant is divided into 2 rooms, one with a bar and the other more of a dining room. Since it was lunch, we ate in the bar and watched it fill up quickly with locals. Our waitress was friendly and patient, explained the “Spanish/Latin/Caribbean fusion” menu, kept our water glasses full and even got the chef to write down the ingredients in a sauce Mom liked.
Everything we tried was delicious. From the yucca fries ($5) and grilled asparagus ($5) to the fish tacos (3/$14) and seafood stew($14) with sea bass and rice, the food was well seasoned and flavorful without being over salted, my main complaint with most restaurants. We didn’t order them but the sandwiches looked appealing and there were many tapas, salad and meat choices, as well. Prices were quite reasonable for lunch and portions were generous. If you are heading north to see the changing leaves, to ski or for any other reason, remember Mezón. I’m happy to know a tasty place to stop off the highway and you will be, too. And for those of you who live too far afield for this specific information to be of any use, remember to do a little research before getting in the car. You, too, may be rewarded with a surprisingly pleasant meal en route.
Mezón Tapas Bar and Restaurant
56 Mill Plain Road, Danbury, CT 203-748-0875