The Bon Vivant of Brooklyn

As we approach Winter in the city, my thoughts turn to some of the trends I've noticed in food and dining - restaurant openings and closures, what's "hot" and "not" and so forth.  So I've decided to start a new quarterly feature highlighting the current gustatory whims of New York, and I'm blatantly stealing a page from WIRED magazine and inventing my own categories:  Gold, Old, and Mold.

GOLD  (indicating the hottest, freshest trends)

Australian - The quest for novel foodstuffs has lead many New Yorkers to the outback; good grief no, I'm not talking about that horrific chain steakhouse - I'm talking Australian national cuisine.  Light-hearted and vivacious Aussie restauranteurs have been opening up new places all over the city:  Kingswood and Tuck Shop in Manhattan, and Wombat in Williamsburg, to name several.  While it remains to be seen whether this trend sustains or is simply the fashion of the moment, there's no doubt that folks are currently intrigued by what comes from down under.

Barbecue - Undeniably the hottest meal ticket in town; literally, if you end up going to Hill Country.  Blue Smoke still rules the roost, but other contenders keep popping up in and around the Meatpacking District, and also notably Fette Sau in Williamsburg.  Also much muttered about:  Mason Dixon in the LES (note mechanical bull in picture).  While there's still no comparison to the real Cue you get much further South, a lot of people are trying very hard to bring that "down home flava" to the big city.  There's no doubt the glistening pulled pork, rubbed spicy beef, gooey sauces, and heaping mounds of side dishes are bringing in the customers!

OLD  (indicating trends on the downturn)

Molecular Gastronomy - I'm actually not sure if this ever caught on in the first place, but it's definitely not something anyone's talking about in restaurants these days.  Maybe it's the high cost of preparation in both time and materials, or maybe it's because people care more these days about actually eating their food rather than staring at it and thinking about how cool their food is.  Presentation and preparation are very important, but nobody wants to see those taken to the extreme.

Sushi - While it hasn't quite reached Mold status yet, sushi is about as commoditized as it gets; it's practically a bodega item at this point, though there are still a lot of folks skeeved out by the idea of raw fish.  It seems like more places are opening with pan-Asian themes, centering on exciting things like noodles and dumplings and pork products of various sorts.  Maybe people are getting a bit tired out by all the rice and nori?

MOLD  (why are we even talking about this?)

Burgers - Remember the $100 burger?  Yeah, me neither.  Who cares about that overly massaged Kobe cow these days?  Everyone's got a burger on the menu now, especially for brunch.  "Sliders" have moved away from the traditional miniature burger to all kinds of other tiny sandwiches.  And if there were a death knell for the burger, the closure of Burgers and Cupcakes on West 23rd would be it.

Italian - I don't think anyone gets excited by the opening of a new Italian restaurant any more.  Which on one hand is a shame, as there's so much to be said for this cuisine, but no one seems to really be doing anything interesting with it these days.  Some restauranteurs will claim regional differences in their menus, but it's rare to find an Italian place with menu items and recipes that venture into uncharted culinary territory.  There definitely needs to be a new Renaissance here - maybe some new kind of fusion with barbecue??

What does Zen Buddhism have to do with food?  A lot more than you might think.

This documentary from writer/director Doris Dorrie regales us with the personality and philosophy of zen master chef (also called a tenzo) Edward Espe Brown of the Tassajara center in San Francisco.  I had previously heard of the Tassajara bread book and the Tassajara cookbook, but had not realized that these came from a zen meditation center!  When I first saw the trailer for this film at the IFC Center, I was thrilled - when I got to see a screener of the film some time ago, I was utterly captivated.

I've always believed that there should be a religion based solely on food.  I think that Edward Espe Brown has gotten as close to that goal as anyone else ever has.  He is a fascinating character; a calm and present zen master who utterly lacks patience, and becomes overwhelmed by emotion!  I almost found myself comparing him to Star Trek's Mr. Spock, who would be completely rational one minute, then be getting jiggy with his Pon Far the next minute.  You can easily see that Brown is filled with passion for food - the film goes from cooking class to lecture to dinner table and back again, and every scene is a tale or a tantrum from Mr. Brown.

In between each narrative section of the film, there is a gorgeous shot of a foodstuff that represents the subject matter of that section.  It's a great segue technique... I almost found myself drooling a couple times while watching the food and the preparation.  There's really not much more to say - the film is essentially just a character study of the chef, with only fleeting appearances by students and other members of the zen cooking staff.  But I highly recommend the film, whether you're interested in the study of zen, or interesting characters, or food and cooking, or all of the above.  The film itself is really a meditation on life and being, as enabled by the literally creative process of cooking and eating.  It'll be playing at the IFC Center for the next two weeks, catch it while you can!

[Where: 323 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10014]

And now, another exploration of recently ingested cheeses:

Gwynedd Caerphilly, Wales - (cow) mild lemony aroma, moderately creamy with a slight crumble, sharp acidic tang, hint of bleu or sharp provolone.

Pau, Spain - (goat) extremely creamy, with a taste like bacon flavored bubble gum, and a sourdough finish.

Idiazabal, Spain - (sheep) very hard and a smoky, Slim Jim flavor, with an oily crumble and an aroma remniscient of citrus. Nutty on the back of the tongue.

Pave du Nord Mons, France - (goat) wooden tang, subtle chocolatey aroma, dry and firm with no crumble, hints of cheddar. Bright orange color from carrots!

Surely you've heard of GROM - the best gelato in New York, and perhaps the world?  The finest imported Italian ingredients, all organic and completely delicious, compose some of the most original and luscious tasting frozen confection around.  The Upper West Side location of the gelateria is the only one outside of Italy (so far) and since its opening earlier this year it has continuously drawn insanely long lines of people desperate for their fine product.  The steep price of $5 for the smallest size serving isn't slowing them down even a little bit.

So what are you going to do when you have to wait in line for an hour or more to get your divine dessert?  Print out this page and take it with you!  Read on for my top 5 tips guaranteed to alleviate your suffering whilst in the queue.

1. Stop at Beard Papa and get cream puffs before getting in line.  You heard me.  We're not screwing around here!  You came here for dessert, and it's going to be a long wait, so you might as well get yourself an appetizer before the main course. How tremendously considerate of GROM to open their store right next to the Beard Papa so you can easily walk the five paces over to baked good bliss.  Better yet, take a friend with you and get him or her to get the cream puffs while you hold your collective place in line.  Because why would you want to wait even a minute longer than you have to??  And kiss that wonderful two-dimensional bearded fellow while you're at it.

2. Get a careful look at the menu before going in.  It's posted pretty obviously outside the store, and also is on a huge wall size menu inside.  You don't want to waste any time waffling over your gelato choices at the counter - slap that stuff in my cup now, man!!  Or better still, go to the GROM website and pick what you want before you even leave home.

3. Can't decide?  Get both!  It's true, you can get more than one flavor in your cup!  This simple yet brilliant innovation opens up whole new vistas of possibility.  What two flavors compliment each other best?  Which one will I dive into first??  Oh joyous day!  But do not dare to exceed two - you will be disappointed by the tiny amount you get in a third of a cup.  Unless of course you're getting the larger, even pricer sizes... or, glory be, a whole LARGE container for $24.00??  You could easily pack six flavors in that bad boy!

4. Try to get the inexperienced gelaterista.  Yes, they really are called that.  And you'll be able to tell them apart from regular servers because they'll be wearing a shirt that says something along the lines of "gelaterista in training".  You want to get the noobs because they'll let you do things like sample each and every flavor before "deciding" on your purchase (and maybe you can pull the old "Can I try that other one again?" trick too).  And if you're really lucky, they'll slather more than the usual serving size into your cup.

5. Don't eat too fast!!  Okay, we know you've been waiting for an eternity.  SLOW DOWN!  Brain freeze aside, this is not the kind of thing you just want to throw in your gullet.  The stick is small for a reason!  Scrape up a little, place it on your tongue, and let it melt away and release all those complicated flavors into every tiny taste bud.  You've got to make this stuff last, baby.  Take your time with it and savor your hard-won treasure.

From time to time I'll post a journal entry dedicated to a particular foodstuff.  Most often I'm sure that I'll be posting about cheeses, wines, and chocolates, as those are primarily my favorite complex edibles.  For this entry, I'll discuss two of the cheese purchases I made tonight from the Bedford Cheese Shop (which happens to be one of my favorite establishments).  I picked up three cheeses, several bottles of soda, and a loaf of bread.  I've only sampled two of the three cheeses, and one of the sodas, so perhaps I'll follow up more later with the rest of it.

We begin with the trifulin tartufo, an Italian cow's milk cheese that is, as the tartufo portion of the name indicates, laden with truffles.  It comes as a tall cylinder, and I purchased a third of a pound of it; the outer rind has a yellowish cast, and a rough stippled surface.  Beneath that, you have an off white cheese, with the onsistency of a crumbly feta or a pressed ricotta salata.  Visible hunks of truffle are strewn throughout; this cheese is primarily a truffle delivery system.  As you raise it to your nose, you sense the extremely bright truffle odor, and it is quickly followed up by an equally powerful flavor coupled with a pecorino tanginess.

Next is the French boulette d'avesne, another cow's milk cheese, this one raw.  It is sold in individually wrapped packages instead of by the pound, as some particularly ornate cheeses are.  I unwrapped the packaging and found myself gazing upon a rotten and extremely moldy red potato; but thankfully, appearances are deceiving!  Slicing it open reveals a slightly more normal looking cheese with an irregular distribution of several types of fats and a variety of green herbs (much like a compound butter).  There is a meaty odor to it, and the immediate taste sensation is that of a medium strength acidic tartness, like a slightly spoiled cream cheese.  The herbs give it a slight savory aftertaste, and the bubbles of fats alternately make the texture smooth like butter in one bite and chunky like cheese in the next.  It is certainly not a cheese for the faint of heart, but I found that it actually makes other stuff taste better after you eat it!

To drink, I selected Fentiman's Traditional Dandelion & Burdock soda.  An English import, and a brand I am quite fond of, this flavor of fermented botanical dandelion and burdock drink with ginger extract was intensely pleasing.  Upon opening it I discovered that it was "distinctively aromatic," as the bottle advertises, and it is no lie.  The taste was a mixture of cream soda and ginger ale flavors, with a hint of bubble gum and cinnamon (that made me grow nostalgic for BIG RED gum).  This beverage was a perfect pairing with the two cheeses, especially so for the boulette.

Lastly, we come to the vehicle of cheese consumption - a Sullivan Street Bakery mini ciabatta.  Moist, crunchy, and flavorful, but not too overpowering.  I will have to venture out to the bakery one of these days and get some of that good stuff straight from the source.  That's all I've got for now - more later!