ode on a corporate cafe

as you may know, i have retired from the office life. several people have asked me, "hey julie, what will you miss most about work? also, you're looking fabulous today." and what i tell them is, "why, this old thing? aw, shucks, thank you! i just threw it on. and i'm really going to miss the corporate cafeteria.

free post-its are all well and good, but i don't think i'll ever get over the corporate cafeteria at my old office. it's that mythical beast: an affordable, reliably high-quality lunch spot in midtown with enough variety to keep you coming back day after day. not only in the neighborhood, but actually in the very same building as my sad little cubicle. that means no getting rained on or snowed on or frostbitten or sweaty just to get lunch! the salad bar was fresh and varied enough that it didn't take much willpower for me to stick to the healthy stuff, but for days when only a quesadilla or burrito would do, the friendly guy at the mexican station was always there for me with his generous guacamole ladle in hand. beyond those old stand-bys and the regular grill station, soup and sandwiches, there were always a dozen or so other options that changed every day. compared with my current daily rotation of omelet-noodles-cereal-bagel, it was a veritable cornucopia of food options five days a week.

i got the feeling that personal photography in the cafeteria is frowned upon (not least of all when the editors of certain high-profile weekly newsmagazines are treating their high-profile interviewees to a casual post-interview lunch), so i sadly have no photographic evidence of the dazzling array of options; i can, however, treat you to a beauty shot of the mouth-watering salad that kept me coming back nearly every day of my cubicle monkey career:
i've always liked salad bars for the freedom they give you to mix and match bites of this and bits of that as you desire. yes, those are monster chunks of feta and three kinds of beans and sprinklings of sunflower seeds. as a close-up, this doesn't capture the size of the beast, which was always very generous - i like a hearty salad, and at the caf's prices, i could have a true meal for $5 or less.

so if you're looking for a new job, i can suggest a truly delicious place of employment.

rayuela

the next time you find yourself wandering the lower east side, hungry and/or thirsting for a creative cocktail, pop over to rayuela, the pricey but fantastic latin joint on allen between stanton and rivington. rayuela self-describes as responsible for the

first-of-its kind Estilo Libre Latino (Freestyle Latino) cuisine, which respects yet redefines contemporary Latin American and Spanish cuisines. While the basic structure of the traditional dishes will be maintained, the actual ingredients may be unconventional and may come from over a dozen Latin American countries including Peru, Ecuador, Mexico, Cuba, Colombia, as well as Spain.

i don't know what that means, but i understand YUM YUM YUM. one of our favorite uncles recently treated us to a latin feast while we were slummin' it down on the LES, and we invite you to come along for the ride (but don't touch anything. we're hungry too).

the cocktail list at rayuela is a little confusing, in a good way. their innovative approach includes ingredients as unexpected (and sometimes scary) as sage leaves and anjou pear (in the vodka drink) and lemon thyme (in the gin). we asked the bartender for his personal favorites (as we tend to do), and wound up with the vodka and sherry cocktails. the sherry cocktail (the bright red one in the foreground below) was a bit more potent and acidic than i expected, and it went down fine - one of those drinks that makes you say after every sip, "this is really interesting!" the vodka cocktail (the yellowish white glass behind the sherry cocktail) was smooth and spectacularly well balanced.

and now, i present to you: the unexpectedly incredible yucca flour buns that they bring you at the beginning of the meal: becca had been to rayuela once before, and warned me about these little melt-in-your-mouth taste rockets. she said, "they come with butter, but they don't need it." she was right, of course, but who am i to turn down high quality butter on anything? they were delicious on their own - fluffy but chewy, with a hint of cheesy flavor - but nothing short of orgasmic with a gentle schmear of fresh, creamy butter on top.

if venezuelans are the happiest people in the world, i think i know why: venezuelan arepas:
rayuela's version comes sweet and crispy with a plop of goat cheese and a drizzle of pesto, and tastes like a cheesy, corny dream.

no tour of amazing aperitivos would be complete without a mention of the tuna rellena: shrimp, crab, and avocado wrapped in sliced tuna served with cucumbers in a soy vinaigrette. we were so excited for this dish that we dived right in and were halfway done when i remembered to stop and snap a picture. but, i think you'll get the idea:drooling yet? i don't want to overwhelm you, so i'll just leave off with the paella de coco. according to the fine folks downtown, their paella contains "valencia rice infused with lemongrass, coconut milk and ginger, served with shrimp, calamari, scallops, octopus, manila clams and peas. served with langoustines and ginger oil." it's a bit more work than the other dishes - you get to dig the meat out of the shells for most of these mollusks and crustaceans - but it's more than worth it.
l'chaim!

speaking of unspeakably foul...

i know this is a food blog, and we're supposed to post appetizing things, but i think a certain amount of disgusting helps you realize how good all the good really is. ergo, i present to you: pickle popsicles.

Fish Extravaganza

A visit to the Tsukiji Fish Market at 5 am in Japan followed by running around for an hour looking for an atm that works followed by 9 am sushi breakfast feast definitely falls under top five coolest life experiences. I got home three weeks ago and am still dreaming about this morning feast and the auctioneer with green hair.

To do this truly right you have to arrive at the fish market at sunrise after staying out until 3 am the night before. If you have trouble finding it follow your nose, and the noise of a bustling marketplace through the dark alleys of knives and dried weird fishes. When you are almost run over by a man driving a scooter with a big oil barrel on the front you are there! But this is just the start; you have a maze and stands to go before the Tuna auction. Make your way through the aisles and aisles of eels, blowfish, clams, weird things, and more weird things. Through the puddles, beware of the men on carts, follow the yelling and suddenly you are there! Men running around and tagging big tunas. Bigger tunas. Frozen tunas! In each section of the vast building a different auctioneer waving his arms screaming as though he is conducting an elementary school orchestra.

Lessons learned:

• Don’t forget your rainboots!



• If you speak Spanish to the tuna from Mexico the fish guy still doesn’t understand you.



• There is lots of live stuff that is cute soon to be dead (like turtles!) Be prepared.



• The fish people don’t mind all the gaijin (gringos) pointing and taking pictures, but be considerate because they have BIG knives.



• As amazing as the market is, you can see how we are overfishing our waters!

According to Wikipedia: The market handles more than 400 different types of seafood from tiny sardines to 300kg tuna, from cheap seaweed to the most expensive caviar. Overall, more than 700,000 metric tons of seafood are handled every year at the three seafood markets in Tokyo, with a total value in excess of 600 billion yen (approximately 5.5 billion US dollars). Tsukiji handles over 2000 metric tons of seafood per day.

fabulously foul

i think it's time to express my profound appreciation for the food network behemoth that is paula deen. for the uninitiated (all five of you), paula is the saucy, southern, probably-drunk host of "paula's home cooking" on our favorite basic-cable channel. and boy, are her creations revolting.

occasionally, i will look at something she's made and find myself improbably drawn to it, in that comfort-food, yucky-but-still-really-good kind of way (e.g., three cheese hot artichoke dip). but most of the time, that shizz is straight up icky. i mean, this is a woman who unironically prepared (and, presumably, served, to some unsuspecting human) cracker salad (fyi: if the name doesn't get you all revved up, just have a look at the picture. who doesn't want to eat something that looks like a pile of vomit on a lettuce leaf? it's vegetables, people. think of your health).

but perhaps paula's crowning moment - so far, that is, as she is really just getting started - was when she took a hunk of macaroni and cheese (admittedly, one of my favorite indulgences), decided it wasn't quite cholesterol-y enough, wrapped it in a strip of bacon, and deep fried the sucker. that, my babies, is high cuisine. if deep-fried, bacon-wrapped mac and cheese isn't enough to get your heart palpitating, i don't know what will. perhaps some butt roast?

as i said, paula is really just getting started. but eventually, we will have to come to terms with her aging, probably pickled liver drawing her away from the heavy workload she currently seems to juggle with such grace. never fear! she is already training her hunky sons, bobby and jamie, to run the family business. along with frequent appearances on both of paula's shows (speaking of which, please do catch paula's party, wherein she cavorts for, and hilariously harasses, a live studio audience), they apparently have a show of their own, road tasted, that i have never seen. it's probably bad, but hopefully one of you will find out for sure and fill me in so that i never have to watch it myself.

hopelessly devoted to food

dearest readers, as you may realize, it's not just for this blog that we obsess about food. rather, we have this blog because we obsess about food.

Becca: [someone] invited me over for dinner tomorrow. she is making gnudi and salad. what would be a good impressive but not too hard appetizer i can bring?
me: what is gnudi?
Becca: http://www.epicurious.com/bonappetit/features/best_06_gnudi
me: YUM
Becca: yes
Becca: marinated mushrooms?
any other ideas?
me: artichoke dip and pita chips
Becca: i was thinking that too
me: ok this obvs is too much work but how good does it look?
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/240689
Becca: HOLY FUCKING AMAZING
me: i know, right?

michael pollan: omnivore, hero, hottie

after slogging through michael pollan's life-changing tome of an article in the new york times magazine last year, unhappy meals [get it? har, har.], i couldn't not buy the omnivore's dilemma, his even-longer book. it changed my life. and though i haven't yet gotten my hands on a copy of his newer book, in defense of food: an eater's manifesto, i am VERY eager to. so, if you're like me and you just can't get enough MPo, check out this interview from last month (oopsie!) and learn why eating almonds (probably) won't make you live forever.

MiniMart Showdown

In high school, I discovered the Wawa and believed to have found the greatest place on earth. Hot pretzels. More machine sweet coffees than you could ever drink. Candy. Chips. Ice cream. Big mugs- BIG MUGS that only cost $0.99 to refill. In true appreciation we went as far as mapping out a WaWa roadtrip through WaWa homeland of Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Alas, the WaWa did not reach north to Boston and I would long for it through my four years at school…until on a trip to St. Louis I was introduced to QuikTrip and a battle soon ensued! Best mini-mart? Who could believe more machine coffee options could possibly exist? And beer sold at a minimart!?!?!


My recent trip to Japan led to the discovery of AMPM and FamilyMart and the quest for world-wide mini mart domination is back on! Soft Serve ice-cream. Rice triangles. More canned drink options than imaginable. Crocksocks for your warm canned drinks. Pocky.




To decide a winner, I’ve created a Pro/Con list. Unfortunately, this battle may never be solved. All thoughts are appreciated!

PROS

WaWa	QuikTrip	FamilyMart
Hot pretzels	Hot Drinks	Canned drinks
WaWa brand- ice cream!	Hot Drinks	Rice triangles
Mugs	Accents of employees	Soft serve machine
Working ATM	Working ATM	Pocky
Hot drinks	Beer	Beer & Sake individual size
Candy under $0.25	...	Surprise items (chocolate may be red bean!)
...	...	Soft Serve flavors: green tea and caramel!

CONS

WaWa	QuikTrip	FamilyMart
Doesn’t sell lottery tickets	Poor prepared food selection	ATM doesn’t work
Difficult to access by foot	Sells Beer	Don’t know what half of the items are
...	Not accessible by foot	Chocolate filled items may turn out to be red bean
...	...	Octopus balls

holla!

big, cheesy shout-out to my lovely lass parsiri, who designed and created the fabulous new header you see up there. (yes, up there. look up. there ya go). if you have any brill ideas for elements that we should add to our kickin' site, or life in general, please don't hesitate to let us know! and swing on by parsiri's place for beautiful tips on fun designs and - sometimes - food!

mmmmCHEESE

The partner in crime is back! While these last few weeks I have not been doing any food writing, I have been doing much food eating- from Tokyo to the Essex market in the Lower East Side out to Brooklyn, I have tasted tempura fish guts to omakase sashimi at nine am to seared scallops in shitake sauce and roasted brussel sprouts cooked by your two resident bloggers.

While there will be many blog entries and pictures highlighting these culinary adventures, in the spirit of this blog I would like to take a moment to pay a tribute to cheese. A wise woman once said at the end of the long day skiing, “There aren’t many things, but taking off ski boots is definitely better than sex.” I have thought about this a lot, and have come to the conclusion that in this case, she is not even close to correct. However, this weekend’s cookfest lead to the discovery of orgasmic cheese! A small piece of this truffeled smooth sheep’s milk cheese may cost a fortune, but it is worth every cent. (You can pick some up in Essex Street Market) Each bite brings a new intense flavor, from creamy and mild to tangy to OOO OOO OOO truffle. Seriously. Orgasmic. This may be better than sex. Or better yet, eat before and after sex.

and speaking of fondue...

fx of fxcuisine, apple of my eye, posted a gorgeous account of his own fondue adventure. when it comes to fondue, you can trust the word of a true swissman (bonus points for other yummies, like french pressed swiss coffee, gingerbread and panettone, and for the action sequence of luging down the alps).

a definite fon-DO

i don't generally read Vogue - not for any reason in particular, or maybe because it has too many words, or because i can't identify with people who think $500 face cream is a worthwhile investment - but i happened to have a copy of the February 2008 issue lying around, and i was bored, so i decided to flip through it. and, man, am i glad i did. if you happen to have a copy of this (admittedly out-of-date, sorry, i know i'm behind the times) issue within arm's reach, crack it open to page 265.

you're welcome.

for those of you who aren't staring at a droolworthy beauty shot of emmentaler right now - and Jeffrey Steingarten's accompanying (borderline pornographic) piece devoted to fondue - i'm sorry. you are majorly missing out. on the upside, there's no reason you can't whip up a pot of the good stuff at home. happily, cheese fondue seems to be experiencing some kind of long-overdue renaissance, as evidenced by Melissa Clark's January 23rd piece devoted to the topic in the New York Times. if you haven't already read it, do yourself a favor.

back to Jeffrey Steingarten. in the article, he claims to have posted his recipes here and here; so far, however, i haven't had much luck pinning them down. it is still worth checking out his two sites for the wealth of other yumminess they provide. and if you're in the new york area any time soon, swing by Tom Colicchio's craftbar by union square and try the "warm pecorino fondue with acacia honey, hazelnuts and pepperoncini". yes, that's right. a few of your favorite things. i had the incredibly good luck to try this dish last month with my friend molly and i can tell you that it is ramekin-lickin' good.

if you're just itching to read more about this delicious new old trend, gourmetsleuth provides a fun, comprehensive guide that's a great starting point. if you can perfect your craft in time, take it on over to the Fondue Takedown at the slipper room next week and win yourself a cool $50. we'll see you there.

one is the loneliest number

fyi, our faithful readers, my partner in crime left us this morning for the glitz and glamour of Tokyo. she will return (and, i hope, share all the dirty details of savory seafood and perfectly prepped noodles) in two weeks, at which point we'll tell you all about last night's super-amazing dinner at the always super-amazing jimmy's no. 43.

have coupon, won't starve

i'm a scientist. so, you can trust me when i say this. it is one of the fundamental laws of nature that when one is broke, and one receives coupons from Subway in the mail for dirt-cheap sandwiches, even if one is not a sandwich person, one will eat the aforementioned sandwiches, and like them.

yes, it's true. i generally don't like sandwiches. this will surely come up again, but i think it's something we need to address right off the bat. people usually think this is a silly position, but i think that a sandwich is only as good as its contents, and so why not just eat what's on the inside, and eat more of it, and not clutter it up with all that bread? (i'm also not a bread person, but that's a more complicated stance that we'll discuss another time).

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanyway, this coupon was for a 6-inch sub for $1.99 with the purchase of a 32-oz drink. THIRTY TWO OUNCES. DO YOU PEOPLE HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH SODA THAT IS?! i do now. the only really noteworthy point i have to make is that i found it hilarious that i ate my sub on the subway. i think alanis morisette's songwriters need to hear about this.

julie's rules for ordering at Subway:

1. order whatever type of sub you like on any kind of bread. this makes little to no difference.
2. order cheese, even though it's not good.
3. have them toast your sub. this is where the cheese is critical.
4. get as many of the veggie toppings as you can. anything that you can tolerate and don't viscerally hate, should go in there.
5. two words: spicy mustard.
6. it's also a good idea to ask them to sprinkle a little oregano and/or black pepper on it before they roll it up. i usually forget to do this, but it does a world of good.

seriously, i'm not some kind of subway fanatic - it was just a pretty solid set of coupons.

this sounds promising

my pal, co-conspirator, and elementary school nemesis, posh, has proven himself to be an excellent cook. partial to meat and square-meal-type dishes (not a pathological grazer like yours truly), he has taken yuppie flight from the granite countertops of Queens and wowed me time and again with his culinary prowess. so, i was excited when our conversation took this enticing turn earlier today:

posh: what are you guys up to on friday?
me: nothing that i know of
posh: would you like to come over for dinner?
me: YES
what are we having?
posh: chipotle encrusted chicken, I think
have I made that for you before?
me: nope
sounds great
posh: it's chicken breast cutlets
marinated in a yogurt-based marinade with chipotle peppers, garlic and cilantro
then dredged in cornmeal and pan fried
me: wow
yum

it should be noted here that chipotle is one of my most very favorite flavors. naturally, i thought this foodish news would be a good way to start off our new blog - with the promise of deliciousness right around the corner - so i figured i'd dig up the recipe to share with our faithful readers. are you holding on to your hats?

me: where did you get your chipotle chicken recipe?
posh: I made it up

and that, friends, is the sign of a master.