Results tagged “frenchfries”

Many people have a strong preference when forced to choose between sweet and savory -- french toast or eggs, cupcakes or french fries, chocolate or cheese? These days, however, the line is getting blurred, with more pastry chefs entering the savory fray, like Sam Mason's Tailor and Pichet Ong's P*ong, both with menus that bring sweetness into entrees and a savory edge to desserts.

City Councilman Simcha Felder's proposed legislation to fine people $1,000 for feeding pigeons has struck a nerve. Felder and other elected officials claim that pigeons' poop is harmful to New Yorkers and, therefore, various ways to limit pigeons' eating and procreating should be explored. But some pigeon lovers are unhappy with the level of vitriol directed at the city's unofficial bird. Hence the video from Animaniacs, "Goodfeathers" (it's 10 minutes, so settle in to...

Faces who are new to Greenpoint might best recognize Paloma for its owner and chef, Camille Becerra, a Season 3 Top Chef contestant (and early departure). Others might just head there for their touted “Urban American Cuisine,” a mix of restaurant, artspace, and convivial Greenpoint gathering spot that serves up food, drink, and oftentimes live music and DVD and television projections. Gothamist visited with a table of friends on a recent night after a successful bowling match at newly opened bar, The Gutter (which features eight vintage bowling lanes adjacent its bar). Paloma is a short walk from The Gutter’s N. 14th Street address on the Williamsburg and Greenpoint border, where food options can otherwise be sparse.

Anne Burrell has barely gotten any sleep in the last month. Almost all of her time has gone into the opening of the new West Village restaurant Centro Vinoteca. Its small, trench-style kitchen features a pass window that looks out onto the bar area; the dining room itself is spread out over two levels with about 75 seats total. 1960’s era Italian glass chandeliers hang over the tables (“They make me think of Lite-Brite,” says Burrell). A good amount of early press for the restaurant has been about its piccolini, or small plates menu, which features items like Fried Cauliflower Wedges with Parmigiano Crust and Agliata ($6), and Stir-Fried Marinated Olives ($3). Entrees range from $19 to $36.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: multiple auto fires at 51st Ave. and 11th St. in Queens, a fatal double shooting on Watkins St. in Brooklyn, and a fatality under a train at 47th St. and Queens Blvd. on the 7 line in Queens.
• A 12-year-old boy was arrested for throwing two plastic bottles filled with an unknown chemical at two women with toddlers at a Queens playground. The four victims were taken to hospitals for minor burn injuries.
• An 82-year-old woman died during a fire in her apartment, which firefighters said was in the "Collyers mansion" style, i.e., stacked floor to ceiling with clutter and junk.
• A short film that is ostensibly about a Coney Island boardwalk hustler, but the sights and sounds of Coney Island itself are the real focus.
• Five out of 12 restaurants visited by the NY Post were found to be using trans fat oil to cook their french fries, despite the recent ban. Only the Moonstruck Diner would fess up and admit it.
• NPR investigates the hidden bee hives of New York City.
• Tammy Faye Messner succumbed to cancer Friday night after a long battle with the disease. Her son now runs an unorthodox (in the non-ecclesiastical sense of the word) church in NYC.
• After fierce criticism the first time around, the Parks Dept. is showing its redesign plans for Washington Square a second time this Thursday (7/26) from 4 pm to 6 pm at City Hall.

This week in the Times, Bruni goes to Esca, calls chef Dave Pasternack a "fish whisperer" (um, OK Frank) and awards the restaurant three stars. "In an era when too many restaurants try to be everything to everyone," he says, "Esca has a specific agenda: show what the sea can yield." The restaurant was previously awarded two stars by William Grimes in 2000.

While the calendar says Spring, the Greenmarket is still stocked with winter staples and given the unseasonably cold weather it would seem that the city's desire for first of the season asparagus and other first of the season treats may still be a few extra weeks off.

The Kensington-Ditmas Park area of Brooklyn is slowly becoming known for its restaurants and dishes, including the “haute barnyard” French Fries at The Farm on Adderley. Meanwhile, the wide swath of Coney Island Avenue running through the center of both neighborhoods remains a mainstay of ethnic restaurants from Prospect Park to Brighton Beach -- everything from all-night, tri-level Pakistani joints to Turkish baklava places. It’s sort of like the restaurant bustle of Jackson Avenue in Queens, but decompressed over a 5-mile stretch. In this mix are a dozen or so Mexican Torterias; tiny shops, usually with signature sandwiches. Most of these places are closet-sized, just big enough for a stove at the back, a regular household refrigerator or a steam table. Torterias are often home bases for roving tamale carts; moreover they’re round-the-clock operations, with employees pickling their own jalapenos, pulling and braiding homemade Oaxaca string cheese, or clipping cilantro leaves from plants growing in window boxes.

Argentines are passionate about both soccer and steaks--luckily both can be found at Buenos Aires in the East Village. A moderately sized dining room with exposed brick walls, dark wood tables, and a few flat screen tv's is appropriate either for a celebratory dinner with family and friends or an afternoon soccer match with your pals.

Having already taken caffeine addiction and the price of a cup of joe to new extremes, Starbucks continues to set new standards by planning to eliminate trans-fats six months earlier than the new ban actually requires them to. Metro-area Starbucks will be knocking trans-fats off of their menus beginning tomorrow and while most of their drinks are already free of the stuff, some of the foods they carry are chock full of `em. The Daily News reports that the pumpkin scone has six grams of trans-fats while their apple fritter has 12, more than an order of McDonald's french fries. The Department of Health proposed the elimination of the coronary-clogging ingredient last September, with the ban passing in December.

The defense attorney of one of the men accused of beating up an off-duty police officer says his client will be cleared. Police Officer Eric Hernandez so badly injured when a group of men beat him at a White Castle that he was seemingly unable to hear an on-duty police officer's request for him to lower his gun, only the other officer to shoot him. The Bronx DA released footage of an interview with the three men who were allegedly harrassing a White Castle employee, only for Hernandez to intervene and a fight to start. Edwin Rivera said that Hernandez never identified himself as a police officer, and then showed he had a gun:

“He’s looking around, and he’s eating his french fries, looking around like he’s about to do something. So that’s when I came and I hit him, and then I threw him to the side — and I didn’t think that all my friends was going to jump in and start kicking.”

Ha! When it was revealed that frozen dessert chain CremaLita did not have low-fat or fat-free ice cream, we should have known there would be a lawsuit. The Post reports that Stephen Brandt sued Crema Lita, blaming his "severe health problems, including but not limited to cardiovascular problems, mobility problems and cancer [as well as the] negative self-esteem issues [that the] social stigma [of] excess weight gain carries [in today's culture]" on the misadvertised treat. But a judge just threw out the case because Brandt's diet wasn't that great to begin with. CremaLita's lawyer wrote:

What Brandt fails to mention is that he regularly eats real ice cream, McDonald's and Wendy's cheeseburgers, french fries, pepperoni pizza, beer, corn chips, donuts, cookies, hard cheese, eggs, bagels, peanut butter, Chinese take-out meals and pasta, [and] that he never exercises.

- In honor of last weeks Day Without Food Blogs, we offer some food blogs whose names we like:

Down in our lower, Lower Manhattan work neighborhood, amongst the pizza places serving cheesesteaks and the catch-all spots trying to pull off turkey sandwiches, tossed salads and Udon, there are a few places that rise above the clutter.

For many of us, the word "cafeteria" conjures up nightmares of cardboard pizza, soggy french fries, and the social agony of junior high school lunch room politics. Fortunately, those years are long behind us. Corporate cafeterias in New York are a far cry from anything we encountered in junior high, and the folks over at Cakehead want to hear about your office's cafeteria and just how good it is. They're accepting nominations for the best corporate cafeteria and the best dish served in the corporate cafeteria. Send your nominations to amy@cakeheadDOTcom. Include the name of the company, the location, why it is the best, and a distinguishing feature about the cafeteria or dish. Gothamist started a new job recently and we've been pretty excited about the cafeteria -- healthy choices, seasonal produce, sushi every now and again, and all at prices that make it tough to break $5. Word on the street is that such enthusiasm lasts about four months before it fades dramatically. At least we've got two months to go.

We adore Pearl Oyster Bar. The raw bar, the fried oysters, and of course, the lobster roll. Several weeks ago, when we first heard of Black Pearl, a clam-shack-style window tucked into the back of the East Village bar Julep, we were intrigued. When we read the New York Times review, we knew we had to go immediately, if not sooner. The review described the lobster rolls as "the real deal. Top-loading hot dog buns are slathered with butter, crisped on the grill and filled with the meat from a Maine hard-shell eighth (a lobster weighing a pound and one-eighth) bound with as little mayonnaise as possible. No celery, no celery salt, no lettuce, no nothing." Now, lobster rolls, like most things culinary, are a matter of personal preference. Our ideal lobster roll has no mayo to speak of, just a drizzle of drawn butter, so we knew we had hit the jackpot.

Over the weekend Gothamist had a chance to go to The Burger Joint on 3rd Avenue, which shouldn't be confused with Burger Joint at Le Parker Meridian. Burger Joint is a no frills burger stop with very few options in the way of toppings - cheese and grilled onions. The burgers are almost slider size (think a little bigger than White Castle), so one might not be enough if you're hungry, but four might be too many (we speak from experience).

There's nothing like a hot summer night to bring on cravings for New England seafood. Visions of clam shacks on the coast and tearing into lobsters at picnic tables were enough to send us racing to Pearl Oyster Bar the other night.

There's a video compilation of SNL's Clinton-Lewinsky scandal sketches, with Hammond as Clinton, Molly Shannon as Monica, Ana Gasteyer as Hillary, and in a brilliant stroke of casting, John Goodman as Linda Tripp. Other SNL takes on presidental types (and wannabes): Chevy Chase as Gerald Ford, Dana Carvey as George Bush, Darrell Hammond as Al Gore, Norm MacDonald as Bob Dole, and Dan Ackroyd as Nixon and Jimmy Carter, not to mention The X-Presidents. Also, there's the book Live From New York, the extremely comprehensive (just no Eddie Murphy) look at SNL.

This Bastille Day we suggest you check out the Loser's Lounge tribute to that deceased French crooner Serge Gainsbourg. A traditional Loser's send up includes a medley of guest vocalists accompanying Joe McGinty and his band on the theme of the moment, tonight, Friday and Saturday, the spotlight is on Gainsbourg.