A Love/Hate Thing

A mass-marketed candy such as Peeps is certainly not anything that is special to New York City. But, nonetheless, they can be found here, primarily in chain stores, such as Duane Reade.

Looking back on my first postings for this website is interesting. I was fascinated with Peeps, perplexed by the amazing durability of their appeal for nearly 60 years. After hunting for Peeps, not realizing that they were readily available at every Duane Reade, I found them at Dylan's Candy Bar on the Upper East Side and did a story, Peeps, on April 16, 2006.

What more appropriately named company, Just Born, Inc., and town, Bethlehem (Pennsylvania), for the manufacture of an Easter candy. However, Just Born, Inc. has its roots in New York City. The founder, Sam Born, was a candy maker from Russia who emigrated to the U.S. via Brooklyn in 1910. In 1923, Born opened a small candy-making and retail store in Brooklyn, New York. He marketed the freshness of his line of daily-made candy with a sign that declared, “Just Born.” In 1932, they moved operations to an empty printing factory in Bethlehem, PA, and in 1953, Just Born acquired the Rodda Candy Company of Lancaster, PA. Although Rodda was best known for its jelly beans, it also made a small line of marshmallow products, which included a popular Easter Peep that was made by laboriously hand-squeezing marshmallow through pastry tubes.

Inspired by David Letterman's nightly Top Ten lists, I have written two lists: the top ten reasons New Yorkers love and hate Peeps.

Top Ten Reasons New Yorkers Love Peeps

10. Even in New York City, where else will you find blue or pink food?

9. There's a diversity of skin colors

8. You can buy Peeps at Duane Reade

7. You don't need to cook Peeps

6. There are still inexpensive things to be found in New York City

5. Peeps are nonfat

4. Peeps are the perfect food to eat while walking

3. You can celebrate Easter without a trip to St. Patrick's

2. In New York City, we got the little stuff too

1. If left in your car, no one will break in to steal your Peeps


Top Ten Reasons New Yorkers Hate Peeps

10. Peeps are not vegan

9. Peeps are not edgy

8. You can't really serve Peeps in a $1.5 million dollar condo

7. You can buy Peeps at Duane Reade

6. New Yorkers don't eat food that comes in blue or pink

5. You don't have to wait in line for Peeps

4. Peeps are not kosher

3. Peeps are not artisanal

2. Peeps are not made "somewhere in Brooklyn"

1. Peeps don't come in black


Like New York City itself, Peeps are a Love/Hate thing :)

Fruits of Their Labor

One of the many benefits of living in New York City is the introduction of products from various ethnic groups. Often, these are the hard core, authentic foods and devices that are actually used by another culture transported by immigrants. The world of fruit is very exotic in the city, with things rarely seen outside the city, such as dragon fruit or Durian.

I first saw the type of orange peeling machine in the photo for the first time in the West Indies - simple, ingenious, and so much faster than hand peeling. Also, when peeled this way, removing only the outer peel and leaving the white portion of the rind (the pericarp or albedo), an orange can be eaten more conveniently, like an apple. It is said that the white portion of an orange contains as much vitamin C as the flesh. Perhaps the slightly bitter quality of the white and the American penchant for all things sweet prevents more people from eating oranges this way.

Recently, while in the Bronx returning from a business meeting, I found myself in slow moving traffic. In New York City, this means captive audience and opportunity. And where there is opportunity, there are always opportunists. Typically in this scenario you will find flower vendors, however, in this case I was hungry and lucky - a vendor on foot was selling machine peeled oranges. Two dollars for a bag of four. I was a happy camper with a snack that managed to ameliorate the drab crossing of the nondescript Third Avenue Bridge.  

Some may feel that our foot vendor is nothing but an opportunist, but perhaps he can also be seen as a necessary and central figure in the fantasmagorical world of New York City, where the Sirens of Convenience not only draw us in, but here, they also provide us with the Fruits of Their Labor :)

Not Just Meatballs

What's the formula for restaurant success? Get just about everything just about right. Do it well enough, and not only will they come, but they will also go out of their way. You will become a destination, allowing you to even dispense with one of the cliched elements of success: location.

Here at The Meatball Shop, the restaurant is abuzz. There are lines. Why? Take a unique concept, one of America's comfort foods, bring it to the next level, and spin it every way it can be spun. Provide an extensive menu so that there is something for everyone (there are numerous vegetarian options, including delicious vegan meatball dishes). Put thought into every offering, even including lemonade (we had rhubarb lemonade). Keep 'em coming back with numerous specials in every category every night (even the lemonade keeps changing).

Give 'em good pricing and value. Make it FUN (albeit a little noisy and with a menu selection check system resembling an SAT test). And don't forget a very well put together decor and homey ambiance that makes you want to relax. Tin ceilings, good lighting, antique photos, wainscoting - all working towards an old-timey atmosphere befitting comfort foods.  Even the bathroom had an equally nice decor and flowers. If you can, offer desserts so yummy you make 'em want to go for broke and throw diet to the wind for one night - here it is, homemade ice cream sandwiches like at Mud, but customized with six choices each of cookie and ice cream.

How do you do create such a successful place? For street cred, start with two New Yorkers who have credentials to spare and are clearly overqualified for the job. Apply these extraordinary talents and passion to a simple food item, and voila - you have what the co-owners, Daniel Holzman and Michael Chernow, like to call "best place on earth." From their website:

Daniel Holzman's cooking career started at age 15 at LeBernardin in NYC. He attended the Culinary Institute of America with a full scholarship from the James Beard Foundation. Prior to graduation, Daniel accepted a position at the Paladin in New York City for Chef Jean Louis Paladin, working alongside such culinary notables as Wylie Dufresne and Sam Mason. Six months later Jean Louis asked Daniel if he would be willing to fill a vacancy at his flagship restaurant Napa in the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas. Accepting the offer, Daniel began a 10-year culinary journey through some of Los Angeles and San Francisco’s finest restaurants including The Campton Place, The Fifth Floor, Aqua and Jardinière.
In 2004 Daniel began his first management job as chef of the California organic bistro, Axe, in Venice, Los Angeles. After one year at Axe, Daniel became Executive Chef at the Inn of the Seventh Ray, a 250 seat restaurant in the Topanga hills known for its romantic outdoor setting and lavish weddings. Daniel remained at the Inn until 2007 when he moved to San Francisco to open SPQR, a rustic Roman Osteria, as Co-owner and Executive chef. Within 3 months of the opening SPQR received 3½ out of 4 stars from Michael Bauer in The San Francisco Chronicle, a rating usually reserved for far fancier restaurants.

Michael Chernow began his professional restaurant career in 1996 behind the bar of the popular nightclub, Life, on Bleecker Street in NewYork City. Learning from the ground up, Michael quickly worked his way through the ranks becoming the youngest bartender on staff. After 2 years working in both Life in New York and in its East Hampton sister club, The Tavern, Michael signed on to open Woo Lae Oak on Mercer St. in New York City.
In 2001 Michael made the move to Los Angeles where he worked at Woo Lae Oak’s original location on La Cienega Blvd. Returning to New York, he opened Punch and Judy, a wine bar on Clinton Street. In 2002 Frank Prizanzano offered Michael a position behind the bar of his eponymous flagship restaurant Frank on Second Avenue.For the past 7 years Michael has been managing the bar at Frank where he has a large, loyal following. In 2007 Michael enrolled in French Culinary Institute, graduated with honors, and was awarded an Associates Degree in both culinary arts and restaurant management in 2008.

It's another good example of a New York City establishment where, if you look beneath the veneer, you will find more than buzz, spin, and hype. This is a place where, under the skin, content is king and it's Not Just Meatballs :)

More West Village restaurants: French Roast (Heard It Through the Grapevine), Doma Café (Tangerine Dream), Cones, Magnolia Bakery, John's Pizzeria (Roots of Pizza), The Waverly Inn and Garden (Buzz and Bling), Le Gigot (Nuance), Lassi (Skinny), Tartine (Paris in New York), Chocolate Bar

Happy Birthday

There are microcosms of New York City that outsiders and even residents will likely never see. Most of these are cultural, revolving around ethnic enclaves. It is even possible to find cock-fighting within the five boroughs.

Perhaps more than any other place in the United States, New York City's tremendous diversity and tolerance allows for strong ethnic tradition expressed through food, dress, activities, music, festivals, and religious practice. Jackson Heights, Queens, is considered to be the most ethnically diverse neighborhood in the world. Not only can vastly different groups coexist, but those with very distinctive dress and traditions can also easily thrive here unfettered and without fear of ostracism. Hasidic Jews, Islamic women, Indian women in saris - the list is endless in a city where, on any given day, it would be easy to think that one had happened upon an annual multicultural parade.

(read more...)

Lobster House

We were headed to Bar Harbor, Maine. I was a vegetarian at the time, and I had been forewarned by my travel companion, who was not, that there was a lobster place and we would be stopping. She had eaten there once before, and there was no way we were crossing the Trenton Bridge to Mt. Desert Island without a stop for lobster and steamers.

She had told me that apart from the obvious - that they were on the coast of Maine, where lobster is world-famous - they also had a unique way of cooking the lobster, which she had found superior to any other method: boiled in fresh, clean seawater over a wood fire. They also avoided fried foods, a tasty, albeit unhealthy, way that most roadside shacks cook their seafood. I never did taste that lobster or clams...

(read more...)

That's Giove

I love a challenge, particularly when told that something can't be done or there are no good restaurants in Staten Island. Admittedly, Staten Island feels more like the suburban New Jersey than a borough of New York City, primarily because it does not lend itself to walking. It's the borough that many residents and former residents love to hate.

There are, however, many good things to be found there, and I have featured a number of places of interest from the borough over the years writing for this website: Todt Hill, Richmond Town, St. Luke's Cemetery, South Beach, and one of the most remarkable places in the five boroughs - the Tibetan Museum.

(read more...)

Essen or Fressen

It was sometime in the 1990s, and my best friend was my CPA, doing all my business and personal accounting and tax preparation. At one particular meeting, he looked over some numbers, virtually as Zero Mostel did in the Producers, seeing the possibility for greed. My friend observed that for a particular deduction, there was an opportunity to "double dip," i.e. take the deduction twice. 

The lure of saving money at tax time is a strong motivator, and knowing my friend was very aggressive tax-wise, I asked whether we should do such a thing. He replied with something that neither of us recall exactly but I remember as an English translation of a Yiddish saying: pigs eat and hogs choke. What I am sure about is what he intended: take the deduction once as the law provides, not twice.

I called my CPA friend and other Jewish friends this morning, and there is no such Yiddishism. The only Yiddish phrase that appears to possibly apply is Tiere fressen, Mensche essen (animals eat, people eat). In German, fressen and essen both mean "to eat," but fressen is used for animals. In connection with people, fressen is considered derogatory. In Yiddish, however, it means nothing more than enthusiastic overeating. Nonetheless, pigs eat and hogs choke is what often comes to my mind whenever there is opportunity for greed, and such an opportunity presented itself on February 3rd.

(read more...)

Caravan of Greens

I would say that the best milemarkers for my life, particularly of my taste in food and cuisine, has been my evolving choice of salad greens (and dressings and cheese). Let me explain…

Once upon a time, there was iceberg lettuce. I ate the lettuce, and I saw that it was good. At least for awhile. A vegetarian for many years, salads were always an important part of my diet, particularly when I was younger and focused on raw foods. So, eating so much salad, I grew to tire of iceberg lettuce and needed more variety. I soon discovered romaine lettuce. I saw that it was better - leafier with more green. It seemed to strike the ultimate balance, and I abandoned iceberg, which, over time, I grew to hate.

(read more...)

Joe's Dairy, The Movie, Part 2

Vincent and Anthony Campanelli were extremely cordial throughout my initial encounter (see Part 1 here). I asked if I might be able to film the mozzarella-making process. They only requested that I return on a day less busy, so on Wednesday, February 1, at 11 AM, I came armed with cameras.

(read more...)

Joe's Dairy, The Movie, Part 1

On September 16, 2008, I wrote a story about Joe's Dairy, located at 156 Sullivan Street. In this Italian area of the South Village/SoHo, we have Pino's Prime Meats as well as St. Anthony's Church (see here and here), both on Sullivan Street facing Joe's Dairy. Just across Houston Street, there is Raffetto's, Delmonico's, and Tiro a Segno. Trattoria Spaghetto lies just a few short blocks away. These are the final vestiges of the Italian neighborhood - places such as Vesuvio and Zito's Bakery, neighborhood icons, are now closed.

However, the full experience of Joe's Dairy - meeting Vincent and Anthony Campanelli, grandpa staking out the front retail area, and the making of mozzarella cheese in that tiny backroom - is something which only video or film can capture.

(read more...)

At the Door

Being a butcher has little allure, and today, like most jobs that involve physical labor, there is no appeal for the young, restless, and upwardly mobile. At one time, butcher shops dotted the city, but now, a shop like Pino's Prime Meat is rare and noteworthy, the subject of articles that bemoan their loss and extol the pluses of getting one's meats from a skilled, multi-generational specialist, like Pino Cinquemani of Pino's Meat Market.

(read more...)

Watch Out For Moose, Part 2

The Hazards of Oil

(see Part 1 here)

Hear this story as a podcast:


There is something about fried food that is so good, isn't there? But with health concerns being what they are, like many, I keep my consumption of fried foods to a minimum.  However, one evening while vacationing in Maine and eating dinner at Kokadjo, I was feeling that life was truly good and decided to throw caution to the wind. I had not only pizza but also French fries, onion rings, and fried sea food. For those not accustomed to so much fried food at one meal, the impact can be severe. And so it was.

(read more...)

Watch Out For Moose, Part 1

The Joys of Oil

Recently, I paid a visit to introduce a friend to the wonderful fries at Pommes Frites in the East Village, which I wrote about on August 7, 2006. On this recent trip, I made a brief video of the process:



While there, I was reminded of my visit to Kokadjo in Maine. On April 7, 2010, I told of the waste of food in New York City restaurants and my experience of how food leftovers were handled at Kokadjo. However, there was a much bigger story about fried food that I left out and that tomorrow will be told in Part 2.

Warning: Part 2 will not be the most appetizing story ever told. For those with a delicate stomach, perhaps it is best to avoid, like fried food itself. For those who don't mind a rather indelicate tale of bodily functions, see you tomorrow :)

Related Posts: Ice Cream Sandwiches, Hot Dogs and Fries, Nathan's

The Damned

There is an entire group of people in New York City who never eat at home, i.e., they eat out every meal, less perhaps a quick snack or light breakfast. This city, better than anywhere in the United States, easily enables such a lifestyle with its staggering array of choices in restaurants, both in number and type. And for a very large number of New Yorkers, particularly living in Manhattan, restaurants are literally steps from their home. Being able to walk within a neighborhood such as the Village, for example, with its plethora of eating establishments, is one of the great joys and perks of being a resident of New York. For many visitors, restaurants are the number one reason to be here.

(read more...)

Ice Cream Sandwiches

I clearly remember the day a classmate sat across from me in the lunchroom with only ice cream sandwiches and milk for lunch. How envious I was. Wow. Just ice cream sandwiches for lunch, washed down with a small milk.

A full lunch at the time was 30 cents. Apparently, there was no law that said someone had to buy lunch and could not buy a number of ice cream sandwiches instead. However, such a thought never even occurred to us, much less doing it. Please note the plural on sandwiches, because, I believe at the time, they were five cents each. Which likely means that he had five plus the milk.

(read more...)

The Way You Like It

When I was a child and was displeased in any way with food being served, perhaps requesting a change, my mother would invariably say, "This is not a restaurant," or "If you don't like it, go to a restaurant." So, more and more, I was looking forward to a time when I could explore such a place called a "restaurant" and, ostensibly, get things the way I wanted them. I saw early evidence of the wonders of restaurant service on one of my first family trips to Virginia, where aiming to please by waitstaff was the the highest priority and raison d'être, as it should be.

Unfortunately, I chose to settle in New York City, not Virginia, and I was to learn that this city was not the ideal place to fulfill my mother's promise. Here, a diner is often made to feel like a waiter is doing them a favor. Special requests are often greeted with an expression of annoyance. Frequently, you are told that something cannot be done when, in reality, it is the waiter that is unwilling to do it. Multiple requests mean multiple trips for the waiter, and soon one begins to learn that living with things the way they are is better than getting what you want at the expense of having a surly waiter, someone often disgruntled, frustrated, and resentful in having to work tables rather than their chosen profession.

(read more...)

Amorino

I have walked by Amorino numerous times. Its beautiful interior led me to believe that it would be very overpriced and more likely selling the decor rather than the product. I learned otherwise. I recently was with a friend, also a nearby resident, and neither of us had yet ventured in. So, both ice cream lovers, we went in on a whim. Given the decor, our first surprise was that the pricing was in line with others like Cones, not more - reasonable by current standards for a gourmet gelato. And the flavors looked awesome, so sampling was de rigeur. And the quality was, let us say, extraordinary.

(read more...)

Sundey

I was a vegetarian for decades and quickly learned that for good vegetarian food, it is better to find ethnic cuisines that have large concentrations of vegetarian dishes than to eat at vegetarian or natural food restaurants. Historically, the establishments of these restaurants are driven more by what the food is NOT than by the desire to offer great cuisine. Of course, taste is a consideration, but not the primary raison d'etre.

(read more...)

Not Chewing Gum

Many of the things I pursued as an adult were things that, lacking money and adequate knowledge, foiled my efforts as a child - kite flying, juggling, photography, and eating enough marshmallows.

It was summer, sometime around 1960, and I found myself in a backlot in Bristol, CT, with a couple of friends. We had built a makeshift campsite. Everything we did was makeshift. We had dug out a shallow foxhole (I don't know why) and had fashioned an A-frame tent-like structure which we placed over our dugout. The tent was made from corrugated cardboard, the scrounger's building material of choice - ubiquitous and free.

(read more...)

I Am a Liar

I have written many times about my feelings regarding the good old days and how, often, fond memories of people, places, and things are really only that - fond memories. If one really examines the subjects of these memories and can be brutally honest, the reality was often not that great at all. And yet we hang on to and lionize scraps of the past, bemoan the loss of old retail shops, and express dislike for the new retailer in its place or perhaps a radical change in decor or operations of an old establishment. The realist, like Joe Plourde, looks life squarely in the face and judges strictly on merit and not on nostalgia. Read about Joe here.

(read more...)