For the past few nights I've been having a hard time trying to fall asleep. It wasn't related to the usual worries such as work,...

For the past few nights I've been having a hard time trying to fall asleep. It wasn't related to the usual worries such as work, money or relationships. Nope, my sleepless nights have been due to my meal at Contra. Night after night, I've been trying to figure out the words to put together to attempt to explain how ridiculous the meal was. 

Let me start with Contra's menu. It's pretty simple, this is what we're making, it's 5 courses, it cost $55 and if you don't like it, eat dry white dog shit. We also have a pretty decent cocktail menu with drinks costing around $12 and they don't have any stupid fucking names like the "Bowery Blood Orangina" or the "Canal Street Dirty Water Dog." 

I had to eat at the ungodly hour of 7pm which was a nice change from the loudness you usually get later in the night. I was seated towards the back with a great view of an open kitchen which seemed more like a zen dojo. No clacking pans, no yelling "fire blah blah blah all day long" bullshit you usually hear out of an open kitchen. The menu for the day was laid out on the table and here's what I got. 

First Course: Scallop, kohlbari, celery: I fucking hate celery. I wouldn't eat celery if it was deep fried in chocolate sauce and served off of Beyonce's ass. I manned up and ate it and loved every minute of it. The scallop was tender, tons of flavor and a nice balance of acidity, every few bites I was getting a mix of sweet pear which made this dish hit every note in my palate. My favorite dish of the night.

  
Second Course: Monk fish, onion, spigarello. When the plate hit my table it was so beautiful, I wasn't sure if I should eat it or have it hanging in my den. The monk fish was perfectly cooked with a nice smokey char flavor. The spigarello was crisp, along with the bulbs of an onion filled with a foam that I couldn't quite figure out the flavor of. 


Third Course: Chicken boudin, turnip with a smear of blood sausage on the side. A tender piece of chicken breast with a perfectly crispy skin topped with maybe the most perfect tasting pickled turnips I've ever had. 
  
Fourth Course: Tangerine, popcorn. Out of the five dishes this one was my least favorite. I really couldn't make the connection between the popcorn and tangerine. 
  
Fifth course: Hazelnut ganache, topped with yoghurt sprinkled with beet powder. It was layer after layer of flavor. I am not big on desserts but eating this was like eating an orgasm while driving a Buggati. 
 

The tasting menu game is heating up in NYC and with a fuck ton of options, I put Contra at the top of my list. Yes the portions were small and if you break down the math you're averaging $11 a dish - but what's a few dollars when it comes to great food? 


Contra 
138 Orchard street,New York, NY 10002 
www.contranyc.com 

For the first time since 1962 years the NFL championship game has come to the New York/New Jersey area. New York is a huge football city d...

For the first time since 1962 years the NFL championship game has come to the New York/New Jersey area. New York is a huge football city due to its large volume of transplants from other states. One way New York has celebrated the coming of the Super Bowl was with the 50 Yard Lounge, which ran from January 29th - February 2nd at 1 Penn Plaza. The events boasted appearances from legendary retired NFL players like Doug Flutie, Cris Carter, and Matt Light, just to name a few. Live performances and DJs filled sounds through 15,000 square feet of heated tent located on the street and on roof decks.

 One thing we take more serious than football in New York City is our food, and The 50 Yard Lounge did not disappoint. A gang of high profile New York City chefs including Michael White, Marc Fiagone, Bill Telepan were serving up special dishes for football and food fanatics alike. Also a few live cooking demonstrations from chef and retired NFL players. I got to check out the 50 Yard Lounge on Saturday which where theme menu was Classic American. All broken up into four quarters. Each quarter a group of chef's would serve up of good eats starting with breakfast in the morning all the way midnight burger bash. Here's a recap from Saturday's festivities.


Chef David Santos of Louro: Portuguese Breakfast Poutine

Esposito Sausage: Breakfast sausage & chicken maple sausage served with warm maple syrup



Katz's Deli: Pastrami sandwiches

Pat Lafrieda: Filet Mignon sandwich
Delicatessen: Pan Roasted Chicken thigh sandwich with olive oil pesto, sweet pepper aioli and burrate cheese

 Pat Lafrieda and NFL legend Matt Light doing a live butchering demonstration. 

 



The 50 Yard Lounge 
www.50yardlounge.com

Nothing fascinates me more than a chef that cooks outside of his cultural backgrounds. The Alex Stupaks and Andy Rickers is what makes the ...


Nothing fascinates me more than a chef that cooks outside of his cultural backgrounds. The Alex Stupaks and Andy Rickers is what makes the New York food scene so interesting. One person in particular that happened to catch my eye was Ivan "Ramen" Orkin. I learned about Ivan after a 2 day eating/The Mind of a Chef marathon. A Jew with not one, but two highly popular Ramen shops in Tokyo. There are three things the Japanese take seriously, sushi, ramen, and bukkake porno movies. 

Ivan was to open up shop on the lower east side but somehow ended up in the new Gotham market located on the West Bumblefuck side of Manhattan 11th Ave & 45th. Slurp shop has a fast casual concept, you place your order at the cash register, wait for your name to be called, and poach your own seat. Here's what I ordered:

Tokyo Shio Ramen ($13): Sea salt, dashi + chicken broth, pork chashu, rye noodle - a really flavorful ramen broth, but a hint more towards the salty side. The noodles had a nice dense, al dente texture to them - maybe the best I've had to date. But that doesn't chalk one up for slurp shop because I hear the noodles come from Sun Noodle.

 
Roasted Garlic Mazemen ($13): Nori, dashi + chicken broth, pork chashu, rye noodle + egg ($2): You would think at the price point for a bowl of soup, the egg would be included. The broth was thick and extra garlicky. Which was cool the first few bites, but after that it started to become too much. This felt more like a noodle dish than an actual soup. 

After everything I've read about this guy, I figured I would be raving about this place for months - but at best the Ramen was decent, though not decent enough for another 40 minute subway ride and a 20 minute walk to the Twilight Zone section of Manhattan.


Ivan Ramen Slurp Shop 
600 11th Avenue - New York, NY 10036 
http://www.ivanramen.com
http://a816-restaurantinspection.nyc.gov/RestaurantInspection/SearchDetails.do



I've had a bug up my ass for a local red sauce joint called Randazzo's for the past ten or twelve years. I'm not really sure a...

I've had a bug up my ass for a local red sauce joint called Randazzo's for the past ten or twelve years. I'm not really sure as to who, what, where, when, or why, but this place just rubbed me the wrong way. Anytime the name of Randazzo's would come up, people would praise and smile, while I snickered and call it names that Webster's Dictionary has not yet defined.  

One person in particular that would praise the food at Randazzos is a good friend of mine who also doubles as my proofreader. He would go on and on about how great their food is, how unique in flavor their red sauce is, and that I am a complete asshole for not liking the place. So I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone. I would take my friend to Randazzo's for dinner to show my gratitude for thoroughly reading through my awful grammar and spelling mistakes, while seeing exactly why I stayed away for so long and then writing about it. 

Randazzos started out as a small clam shack located along Sheepshead Bay on Emmons Avenue in the early 1940's. In the 1980's the small clam shack was transformed into a full blown restaurant and would serve up fish dishes in their signature red sauce. As I walked into the space it felt like déjà vuAfter being heavily affected by Hurricane Sandy, the place appeared to be untouched. It was exactly how I remembered it. A no frills design, with a long counter that overlooked the fry station. A large room with black tables and red and white stripped paper place mats with pictures of regional areas in Italy. We grabbed a seat at a table and started to scan the the menu. This is what we ordered: 

 Seafood Fra Diavolo ($23.95): Shrimp, clams, and mussels in a spicy house red sauce, served atop a bed of pasta. Not to sound like a broken record, but this dish was fucking good.

Fried Calamari ($13.95): A portion the size of some food writers egos had hit our table. Plump rings of perfectly battered squid, deep fried to a textbook definition. Served with Randazzo's signature red sauce - the culprit. Now a lot older and somewhat wiser, I understand why this sauce is raved about among the Brooklyn natives. It has this certain taste that you really don't get with other housemade red sauces. I had a hard time deconstructing the actual flavors in the sauce because there was too much going on, oh and I was also to busy stuffing my face with it.

Shrimp in Medium Sauce ($12.95): Doused in flour, fried for 3 minutes, and served with a piece of bread that has an almost stale consistency, topped with the house made read sauce. This is actually one dish I've always liked, not really for the shrimp but for the bread. As the sauce sets into the bread it gives it a little sogginess. When eaten, you have the texture and consistency of both crunchy and soggy. It's a weird combination that makes for a "you have to eat it to understand it" type of dish.
I have to confess, I am a fucking moron. I spent the last ten years or more neglecting one of the originators of Brooklyn red sauce joints out of stupidity and stubbornness. Luckily my eyes have been opened. If you will excuse me, I have ten plus years of eating at Randazzo's to do. 


Randazzo's Clam Bar 
2017 Emmons Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11235
http://a816-restaurantinspection.nyc.gov/RestaurantInspection/SearchResults.do

I have suffered many disappointments in my life. Like the time I didn’t make the Harlem Globetrotters, and when I lost my collection of pota...

I have suffered many disappointments in my life. Like the time I didn’t make the Harlem Globetrotters, and when I lost my collection of potato chips that resembled movie stars from the 80’s. My most recent disappointment came from Dale Talde and his latest project Pork Slope. After a panty dropping meal at Talde, I was excited to see what he was going to do with everyday bar food. I like nachos, I like pulled pork, I like tater tots, how could I lose? What I don't like is waiting hours on end for a table, so I waited almost a year for all the culinary hypebeasts and Yelpers to find another craze to follow.

Pork Slope is supposed to simulate a honky-tonk or a dive bar. Funny, I don't ever remember seeing any baby strollers in any of those places... welcome to the new Brooklyn. We grabbed a seat closest to the front of the restaurant, and as I looked around I noticed that the place was half empty on a Saturday night. Was I missing something? As I looked around I noticed the bar's impressive selection of whiskeys including a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle and a selection of more than twenty beers on tap. My friend and I took a quick skim through the menu and this is what we got.

 Nachos ($8/$11): You have an option for a small or large size. Tortilla chips topped with chili, jalapenos, cheddar, tomatoes, onions. Crowned the best nacho’s in NYC, and I could see why. The chips were super fresh and had a nice crispy, toasty warmth to them. I could eat these all day and all night.


Pulled Pork Sandwich ($13): BBQ sauce, pickles, sesame potato roll. The sandwich was the most pedestrian piece of pork I've eaten in a while. Not really juicy, not really messy, barely any flavor. You would think a place with the word "pork" in it would have the pulled pork sandwich game on lock. 
photo 2(9)
 
Brisket Sandwich ($14): BBQ sauce, pickles, Texas toast. You call this Brisket? Now, don't let the picture fool you, this monstrosity of a sandwich tasted like an old catcher’s mitt sitting out in the desert sun. The meat was so dry that I had to drink water as I chewed on the sandwich. The Texas toast was hard as a rock, I was going to keep a slice with me just in case any Park Slope parents got out of hand.

photo 3(10)

Tater Tots ($5):  These were actually good. Really crispy in texture, not overly greasy, and with right amount of salt to give it a little flavor.

tots1


The food at Pork Slope was really unimpressive. One thing Pork Slope got right was their extremely bad service. My friend and I waited well over 30 minutes for our nachos in a half empty restaurant. After our Nacho's finally hit the table, so did our sandwiches two minutes later. No apologizes, no “let me take something off your bill,” nothing. Where’s the hospitality? I can make a pulled pork sandwich and nachos in the comfort of my own home in boxers and bumping Action Bronson. I go out to eat because I am looking to enjoy myself and not have to constantly wonder “where the fuck are my nachos?"

Pork Slope
247 5th Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11215
www.porkslopebrooklyn.com
NYCRestaurant_A
 




As a blogger, I get invited to a lot of cool events. My most recent event was dinner at the NoMad rooftop hosted by Buick. With this being m...

As a blogger, I get invited to a lot of cool events. My most recent event was dinner at the NoMad rooftop hosted by Buick. With this being my first event hosted solely by a car company, I was very interested to hear how Buick would be incorporating themselves into the food world. Dinner at the NoMad was a great start. With a quick presentation from Buick, which is known to be a entry level luxury American sedan lineup, I started to understand exactly how they are integrating themselves into the food world. Whether you're going out for a nice dinner or to the farmers market to pick up a few things for dinner, you need transpiration. Why not get there in luxury and comfort and still have a little extra cash in your pocket for that midnight snack. 

Another great way that Buick is integrating themselves into the food world is as a sponsor of the 2013 New York City Food and Wine Festival - a four day food festival with proceeds benefiting No Kid Hungry and The Food Bank For New York City. Buick was also nice enough to give me a pair of tickets to the Grand Tasting. A warehouse that once held machinery and army supplies was now filled with seventy-five plus food and drink vendors catering to thousands of food lovers. Here's my quick recap of the food filled afternoon.



Pork Taco from Vatale
Pork Taco from Vitae


photo 3

Hamachi from Esca
Crudo from Esca


Stewed short beef with pesto mash
Stewed short beef with pesto mash
photo 3



Buick giving away artisan honey
Buick giving away artisan honey



Pisatchio honey ricotta on a sugar Brioche from high road craft


The New York City Wine & Food Festival
www.nycwff.org/
 
Buick
www.Buick.com


The burger game in New York City is a saturated one. Every week another burger joint opens with their dicks swinging, claiming that their g...

The burger game in New York City is a saturated one. Every week another burger joint opens with their dicks swinging, claiming that their grass fed burgers are the best in town. Six months later they close down and another burger joint or a fucking fro-yo shop opens in their place. So when picking a burger joint, I tend to do my homework and chose wisely, or I will end up at shit holes like Corner Burger. I do in fact make a pretty mean burger myself, and for me to travel from one end of Brooklyn to the other end of Brooklyn to get a burger, it better be fucking good.


I have this ongoing list burger joints that I need to visit, not a bucket list, those are for assholes. This time I wound up at Dumont Burger in Williamsburg. After spending a week of rummaging the internet and when I mean by internet, I mean stalking hash tags on Instagram for pictures of what I was getting myself into. This is a great method, it's like online dating, except there is only a 50% chance of you having to call the cops. Dumont's menu is small, this is what I had:

DuMont Burger ($14): Grass fed beef laid onto a grilled Brioche bun, Boston bibb lettuce, tomato, red onion, house pickles, and your choice of onion rings or french fries. Dumont only offers one type of burger, with your choice of cheeses, bacon, caramelized onions, etc. I had my burger with bacon and cheddar cheese. Not many burgers can rival my all time favorite burger at Ox Cart, and Dumont's burger is a very close competitor. The patty was perfectly seasoned with no need for ketchup or any other condiment, and cooked to a perfect medium rare. If I had to explain Dumont's house made pickles, out-fucking-rageuos, ask for extras!
photo 1(6)

















Besides word of mouth, another way I pick restaurants to write about is through my Twitter feed. Dumont once followed me, but unfollowed me sometime ago. I pretty much wrote them off, well, because I am a 5 year old boy trapped in a 32 year old man's body. Good food is good food, Twitter or not. Dumont Burger is just good food and with only 2 months left in the year, I have to say Dumont Burger maybe the best burger I've had for 2013.
 
 
DuMont Burger
314 Bedford Ave  Brooklyn, NY 11211
www.DumontBurger.com
NYCRestaurant_A