How much did you spend on lunch today? $10 for a salad at Chop't? $7.50 for a sandwich at Pax? A whopping $175 on the lunch tasting menu at per se? Regardless, if you set that amount of money aside tomorrow, May 14th, and donate it to City Harvest's Skip Lunch, Fight Hunger campaign, you can make a difference in the lives of hungry New Yorkers. That $5 you'd ordinarily spend on two slices of... [continue]

The city's top restaurants represented in full force yesterday at D'Artagnan's Fourth Annual Duckathlon, a culinary competition where chefs tackle food-related and often wacky challenges throughout the Chelsea Market and Meatpacking District. Teams from Anissa, Craft, Craftsteak, Oceana, DB Bistro Moderne, Chanterelle and Gothamist's own Mother Duckers followed the duckprints around the neighborhood while guessing the weight of a suckling pig, matching testicles to their animal owners (pictured above), frantically flipping crêpes, and humiliating... [continue]

There's no shortage of fiestas this Cinco de Mayo, so pull out the maracas and get going. Dos Caminos has a "Fiesta de la Calle" menu from May 2 through May 5th, a celebration of street festival food. They're offering tacos de chamorro (braised pork shank), baja tacos de pescado (fried fish tacos) and, perros calientes, bacon-wrapped kobe hot dogs stuffed with pickled jalapeños and chihuahua cheese. And because street food just isn't street food... [continue]

We've got some damn tasty sandwiches in this city, no doubt about it. So today the Times gives New Yorkers a collective pat on the back, surveying seven high points in our spectacular sandwich landscape, including Taim's green falafel, the Knish Press (a sandwich composed in a split knish) from Press 195, and – in a surprise nod to nearby Montclair – the Benny Mac (a heart-attack-inducing chicken cutlet sub topped with mac-and-cheese, barbecue sauce... [continue]

Restaurateurs Marc Meyer and Vicki Freeman took some time out of their hectic brunch schedule at Five Points to cook up some matzoh brei, a traditional Passover dish. They generally don't limit their matzoh brei eating to the Passover season. "We eat it all the time," says Vicki. At their house it is generally served plain, although Vicki admits to eating it with applesauce and sour cream when she gets it at Shopsin's. Marc... [continue]

Photograph of Mark Simmons, Top Chef contestant and sous-chef at Public, and WD-50 chef and owner Wylie Dufresne The festive factor was running high at last night's Taste of the Lower East Side, the 8th Annual fundraiser for the Grand Street Settlement. Forty neighborhood eateries pitched in to benefit Grand Street's programs that assist low-income Lower East Side residents, and they showcased some of their best dishes for the crowd of well over 1,000... [continue]

Far Rockaway, Queens--REPRESENT! Resident Joy Devor won the Simply Manishchewitz Cook-Off last night with her recipe for "Fantastic Flounder Rolls" beating out close to 3,000 other entrants in this nationwide competition. Somehow Ms. Devor managed to score some elusive Tam Tams, which might have been the key to setting her recipe above the rest. (The recipe also used Manischewitz Extra Virgin Olive Oil.) Her next cooking challenge, according to NY1, is "preparing food for her... [continue]

If the thought of matzo ball "sinkers" and your aunt's dried out brisket are making you dread Passover, perhaps you can convince the family to eat out for the seder this year. Many restaurants are offering more traditional seders, but some are kicking up the spice. For a Mexican twist, try Toloache for matzo in preparations you'd never imagine. Dig into the Matzo tostada “Yucatan” (crispy matzo tortilla, achiote smoked white fish salad, “Yucatan style”... [continue]

The NY Times' Eric Asimov highlights the proliferation of wine bars throughout the city (131 at last count by newyorkwinebarguide.com), particularly those offering snacks and small plates far beyond the charcuterie and cheese one might typically expect. And they're not all Italian either. In fact, Asimov spans the globe in his wine bar visits: Spain at Pata Negra, France at Solex, and South Africa at Xai Xai. The lower cost of real estate involved in... [continue]

John DeLucie has been entrenched in New York's restaurant scene for well over a decade, with stints at three-star restaurants and high end hotel kitchens along the way. Most recently running the show at La Bottega, he is currently a partner and the chef at the Waverly Inn, where New York's celebs go to see and be seen while dining on haute versions of comfort food classics. You recently had a group of second graders... [continue]

On all counts, Michael Psilakis has been on quite a roll. Though his two-starred Dona was shuttered due to a real estate snafu, he went on to earn a Michelin star at Anthos, one of only two Greek restaurants with this honor, his to-die-for gnudi recipe was featured on the cover of Bon Appetit, was named Esquire's chef of the year, and opened up Mia Dona, which just yesterday earned two stars from Frank Bruni.... [continue]

Eating out and being philanthropic may seem mutually exclusive, but there is a way the money you spend to eat out can help others at the same time. During the month of April, restaurants will pair up with the “Spring for City Harvest” campaign, each eatery offering special appetizers, entrees, desserts, and in some cases complete prix fixe menus. They will donate 10% of proceeds directly to City Harvest, where the money raised will be... [continue]

Instead of asking "why is this night different from all other nights," many seder participants will be asking "where are the Tam Tams"? Manischewitz broke the tragic news today that Tam Tams, their bite-sized matzo crackers, will not be available in time for Passover this year. Tam Tams made their debut in 1940 and have been produced every year for the past 86 until now, derailed by a delay in the installation of a... [continue]

Troy Landwehr, a champion cheese carver (who knew there was such a thing?), took four days to create this lovely Lady Liberty out of what started out as a 1,200 pound hunk of aged cheddar. Despite the fact that the video is essentially a promo for Tracey Ullman's upcoming Showtime series, it's still oddly difficult to turn away. Troy, whose cheese carving is backed by a band in this video, has also carved Mount Rushmore... [continue]

Easter, as you may know, is the holiday that often seems to celebrate the wonders of brunch, although rumor has it there's some religious thing involved as well. Whatever the holiday means to you, here are some Easter brunch (and dinner) options that sound particularly delectable. Lunetta: Chef Adam Shepard is serving up a "Pasqua Supper" for Easter Italian-style. He's pulling out the ingredients you've been craving all winter -- fava beans, asparagus, and lamb,... [continue]

Food Network fans are no stranger to Anne Burrell, whom they know as the spiky-haired blonde sous-chef to Mario Batali's Iron Chef. Now they will get to know her more intimately as the star of her own upcoming show, Secrets of a Restaurant Chef, where she'll take her years of restaurant experience and culinary expertise and distill them into practical techniques for home cooks to work with in their own kitchens. It's unclear how Burrell... [continue]

First there was the Spitzer Spritzer at Teddy's and now, Sandwich #9: Hot Tongue on Rye. Eisenberg's owner Josh Konecky explains to Gobble the creative process behind today's special: So, who came up with the sandwich? Spitzer came up with it. [pause]. No, I came up with it. Did you already order? Yeah. I didn’t order the tongue. What’d you order? The chicken? No, the roast beef. A lot of people don’t like tongue.... [continue]

Heads up: David Chang's latest creation, Momofuku Ko, will be open for online reservations at 10:00 a.m. today, so cancel your meetings, bookmark the URL and prepare to crash the site's server. Will the dainty new baby live up to the breathless hype that swirls around Chang's burgeoning empire? Only the quick-clicking lucky few will find out anytime soon. As we described last week, Chang deliberately decided not to take reservations by phone and created... [continue]

One thing that should be in your container of kitchen utensils is a set of tongs. They are extraordinarily handy and can used as an extension of your hands. Keep them near your stove top and use them for many of your cooking needs: Distribute a sauce on pasta before plating, give vegetables a stir while they're roasting, flip a pork chop under the broiler, hold up a thick steak to brown the sides, toss... [continue]

Pictured: Fluke Sashimi, Poppy Seeds, Chives, Spicy Buttermilk. Coddled Egg with Sous Vide Onions, Sweet Potato Puree, Osetra Caviar, Potato Chips, Parsley by Kathryn Yu It's the law of supply and demand -- if something is hard to get, everyone wants it. This especially applies to Momofuku Ko, the latest spot from chef-superstar David Chang. There's no secret handshake or phone number needed to get in (in fact, there's no phone), just an internet... [continue]