08.16.10
Posted in New York City Reviews, food-related musings at 18:03 by Dominique
I went to Hong Kong Supermarket on Hester and Elizabeth today because I am completely out of groceries, and I can only cook really healthy if I have things to make. Not trying to do the anorexic thing; not on purpose, anyway. This was my loot:
mmm, healthy food
As you can see, I packed the stuff together and it pretty much covers my dining table, which has an area of 1,590 square inches, or 11 square feet. I got a pound of 33-40 count shrimp, a salmon filet, 2 giant chicken breasts, 2 Dover sole filets and enough veggies to feed an army of bunnies. Plus a couple of prepared things, which are always more expensive. The cost of all this food was $42.39.
If you live anywhere near Chinatown and have even a little time to cook, this is really the way to go. Especially now that I don’t have to feed the ex-Boyfriend, I can make these groceries last 3 weeks or so. I portion out the meat for freezer storage right away and prep the veggies. They keep a surprisingly long time in the fridge when stored in plastic containers. (Don’t expect the plastic bags to do the same trick, though – I’ve wasted some carrots and celery that way.)
This is why I generally don’t bother with Whole Foods.
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07.02.10
Posted in food-related musings at 21:33 by Dominique
I just finished Tony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential (I know, I know, I’m terribly late to that party) and he was so inspiring that I feel ready to devote time to blogging again. I also am pretty sure I never want to be a professional chef, although I would love to cook more correctly.
Things have been very busy chez Dominique. I’ve had lots of auditions, shoots and classes; I broke up with the latest Boyfriend, who just moved out; and there’s been a lot more cooking. Fortunately, I have many restaurants to write about from the last four months. Coming up: Faustina.
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06.03.10
Posted in food-related musings at 20:41 by Dominique
I’ve got a long backlog of reviews, and this juice fast (I’m on day 4!) means that talking, writing or thinking about food is pretty much impossible if I want to stick to it. I’ve just got two more days of Naked Juice to go. Regularly scheduled posting will resume soon.
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04.22.10
Posted in New York City Reviews, food-related musings at 15:21 by Dominique
An article in the Telegraph UK, “Should men be in charge of the kitchen? Yes” made me so mad I couldn’t write about it for a while. I love gadgets more than the next guy – and I’m better with them – and cooking is a way for me to get exactly what I want, save money and have fun experimenting. Bullshit I do it to feed my nonexistent family. And I don’t cook with some nebulous love, I cook with taste, creativity and intelligence. And you know what else? I can build stuff too. Mr. Hirst apparently is “worse than useless at DIY” but I wield a mean drill. So pooh to you. And shame on you for being an inefficient, messy cook. Sure, you can make things and leave a “mountain in the sink” for your wife to wash – that’s not something you should be proud of, idiot. That means you are wasting your time, her time, water and energy. What a douche bag.
Unfortunately, the stereotype continues with the Newsweek article, “Women write about food as a substitute for love, while men write about food as a way to brag about sex.” It’s true that a lot of women blog about their cooking recipes and how good it makes them feel to take care of their families. (And a disturbingly large number are crappy, prolix writers. Strunk and White are rolling in their graves.) I see very few men’s recipes. A disproportionate number of men review big restaurants and food events. Women want to stay at home while men go out in the big bad world, it seems. But there are women like me who aren’t caught up in the sentimental stuff. Not that there’s anything wrong with that – where would you be if your mom didn’t make sure you ate? And isn’t it partly because we as a society expect women to cook “with love” and for their families, and for men to execute daring feats in the professional kitchen? Unfortunately, I don’t see much that women can do to change that except go do stuff we enjoy and hope that the world catches up soon.
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03.16.10
Posted in food-related musings at 13:55 by Dominique
Time magazine had an article by Josh Ozersky today about why old-fashioned restaurant critics still matter (via @SamSifton). He makes some good points – it is certainly unlikely that just “any girl with a blog and a digital camera” has the experience and the knowledge to usefully opine about food. Plus, Ozersky thinks it’s hard to know people’s tastes if their publishing history isn’t that long. Mainly he laments the vacuum in authority and perspective left by the Wall Street Journal’s dismissal of their longtime critic, Raymond Sokolov.
Obviously, since I write this blog, I don’t think small-scale restaurant reviewing is useless (although sometimes I do wonder what exactly I’m working towards). I’ve only been eating at great restaurants for the last seven years, and I’ve started noticing the nuances of skilled cooking in maybe the last three. My opinion, as a smart, aware, critical person, is still valuable. While we all want to know what experts think, everybody eats. It’s not like art, where most people don’t do it and don’t know much about it. A layperson can actually have something useful to say. And because of the subjective nature of reviewing, I try to cover certain basic points with specificity in every review, as I hope is apparent. Plus, if you want to know exactly where my tastes lie, just see About the Blog or the Guide to Ratings.
Ultimately, while it would be wonderful if we could all afford to eat at terrific restaurants worldwide all the time, I don’t think that’s the only way you can contribute something valid to food culture and knowledge. If you ate somewhere thoughtfully and can describe in detail why you did or did not like the food, I care what you think. And that’s where I hope my reviews fit in.
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02.10.10
Posted in food-related musings at 15:14 by Dominique
I have been going to all these inspiring, fun foodie events! I kept meaning to blog about them but I’ve been super busy with my other careers and playing housewife (I’m a slow chopper and a perfectionist. Not an efficient combination). Anyway – first there was the free Word of Mouth event about Online Media and the Future of Food Writing. It’s amazing how many people turned up. Housing Works was packed. I was really excited to see Ed Levine from Serious Eats and it was inspiring, but a bit overwhelming, to hear how many other food sites are out there. I guess it’s good that my blog has a clearly defined niche or I’d be even more lost in the shuffle.
The Boyfriend and I went to Hill Country to use my Blackboard Eats coupon when I stumbled into a foodblogger party, courtesy of Hagan Blount and his 93 Plates project. I met some other interesting people – hello Diva Jackie! – and realized that I should be networking a lot more if I want to make any headway at all.
Which is why I actually paid to go to the Culintro Future of Food Journalism seminar. It was, as all verbal discussions of food and writing tend to be, a little bit omphaloskeptic, but I actually learned some stuff this time. I’m not a trained journalist, though I’ve read enough books and issues of the Economist and New Yorker to have a pretty good idea of the ethical rules. It was nice to discover that I have been instinctively following them the whole time.
I like being more involved in the foodwriting world. The Boyfriend is helping me improve the website and I am thinking of new things I can do. I might write a little more about things I cook at home, since I do that nearly every night, and I think I will try to stick to a posting schedule. I’ll throw my hat over the fence and say Mondays and Thursdays will be the magic days from now on. Tomorrow is my birthday, so there, by publishing this I am ahead already!
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01.21.10
Posted in food-related musings at 14:00 by Dominique
I am hungry all the time. I also try not to eat sweets, since they are empty calories and not filling to me. This is a problem when I’m away from home and just want a little snack. You can buy a candy bar or brownie or tons of other treats, but where are the non-junk savory snacks? As much as I love chips, they’re empty calories too. Jerky is out, Hot Pockets require equipment, and sandwiches or pizza slices are usually too much food. Fast food dollar menus tend to have smaller foods, but a burger is still not healthy or small enough.
My favorite solution to this conundrum is Café Zaiya. They have a location on 41st near Madison, inside Kinokuniya Books on 6th and 41st, and near St. Mark’s Place on 3rd Avenue. Their onigiri is great! A palm-sized triangle of rice with tuna, salmon, or shrimp inside, wrapped in crispy seaweed, is exactly the healthy, tasty small bite I’m looking for. And at not even $2, it’s a great deal. I wish more places had it. We have sushi and udon at nearly every random deli and café; onigiri is just as easy to make. This could be the solution to America’s much-discussed obesity epidemic!
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11.26.09
Posted in food-related musings at 22:49 by Dominique
The lucky food critic at GQ, Alan Richman, invited Eric Ripert of Le Bernardin (which is now even higher on my list of must-trys) to dinner at his house, to give M. Ripert a taste of suburbia. Imagine the great French chef’s reaction to food sold in bulk and jumbled with other unrelated products. He is comically horrified at everything, and can’t even bring himself to push the shopping cart, though he readily owns to being petulant. The part that really gets me is that he unhesitatingly admits the meal is good. That may have something to do with Richman’s skills in the kitchen – apparently cheese soufflés are trés difficile – but I like that even a renowned chef showered in honors for cooking some of the most amazing food in New York City can find the good in non-organic, processed food of uncertain origin. I doubt Alice Waters would ever unbend that much.
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10.14.09
Posted in food-related musings at 00:51 by Dominique
My friends J & H had an extra ticket and very kindly invited their favorite foodie along. I had no idea what would happen besides Anthony Bourdain talking, so imagine how much I hyperventilated when they said Frank Bruni would be interviewing him!
Mr. Bruni is much handsomer than I was led to expect. He is also very nice and circumspect. Bourdain, on the other hand, is blunt and funny. He really doesn’t give a shit if people disagree with him, think he’s an asshole, or want to vilify him. Who else would say that fat people should be taxed the way smokers are? (I think it but I don’t say it in front of fat people. I mean, they might sit on me.) With some of the idiot audience questioners at the end I could see he was actually quite patient, trying not to destroy their fantasy worlds, so it’s not that he’s a jerk. He just isn’t afraid to be outspoken about sensitive subjects. Good for him.
It was a very enjoyable talk. Generally people yammering about food is not terribly engaging, but Bourdain had tons of interesting tidbits to share. If I could cram more TV into a life already full of about 4 different careers, I suspect I could get very addicted to his show. He was admirably articulate, probably partly due to getting the questions in advance, and the Times made good use of multimedia clips. They talked about a lot of broad picture, “best/craziest in your life” and “how are things different today” subjects. The only thing I didn’t like – he described Southeast Asia so glowingly, it made me want to go even more than I already do. That probably won’t happen for a long time. I also thought it weird/inappropriate that the “afterparty” was minutely catered by the random Italian restaurant (Montenapolo or something, not even going to bother looking it up) next door. Obviously, it was very convenient, but I think they should have had food from Les Halles in Bourdain’s honor.
This event was so much more worth it than the DailyCandy Midnight Munchies thing I went to last year. Despite that one having food and open bar, I felt royally ripped off for $100. Next year I might actually pay the $50 to go to another inspiring talk like this.
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09.12.09
Posted in food-related musings at 19:29 by Dominique
I gotta say, I’m a little offended at the new Nissin Chow Mein tv ads with the Chinese tiny old man cartoon. He spouts some vaguely Confucian-sounding crap in a thick accent and looks straight out of, I don’t know, 60 years ago. Long wispy beard, bushy eyebrows, a robe (what is he, Chinese Hef?) and something that could be a scroll or a lame samurai sword strapped to his back. Plus, he turns out to be “Eddie from Accounting” at the end of the ad. If they just went with the retro silliness it might have been funny, but it ends up weird and nonsensical.
Do they actually think this will get people to buy their noodles? If a real Chinese person said they were good that’d make the same point except a hundred times better. This little drawing telling a white girl that she has “followed the path to noodle enlightenment” is just dumb. I hope he’s not what the execs imagine when they think of Chinese people.
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