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I’m taking what I hope will continue as a yearly summer work session in sunny western PA. The worst thing about western PA is the food. It is so glutenous. Western Pennsylvanian cuisine was founded in Ranch Dressing and built around wings and chicken -n- dumplings. Then it was wrapped in ham and cheescake and deep fried. OMG it is stupid delicious. My most recent wild grease consumption was with the Pittsburgh Pizza League at their #1 hang spot, Vincent’s Pizza, an establishment with great signage and great pizzas that you can eat with a spoon.
little kitty cat hands!
holding a pizza dough cloud with two sticks
Phil and Brett put on their pizza muscles
a pile of pizza
and here is a video of the saucy, wet Vinnie pie fresh out of the oven. after we finished this pizza, some chose to soak their crusts in the leftover lakes and rivers of red red greasy pizza leavings. mmm. accidental dr. pepper plug. but you know what i like dr p so it stays in.
Shit will be going down.
Tonight, (Tuesday), 11:15pm on the Independent Film Channel.
I’m really bad about blogging: I go to a great restaurant, eat amazing food, even take photos and then let them sit on my camera for months. Well, not anymore. Time to play catch-up. Let’s start with my most recent visit and a notorious Manhattan fixture: SHAKE SHACK.
Shake Shack is literally a little shack or kiosk in Madison Square Park located at 23rd and Madison in the Flat Iron District of Manhattan. There are a couple of other locations but this is the original. Here is a nice view of the Shack and the tables in the park. (Visit their cute website: http://www.shakeshacknyc.com/ – featuring a webcam live feed of the line. creepy cool!)
So when you get to the park you just stand in line. I went with 2 other first timers and we just went with it. There is one line and it is LONG so just stand in it. Unless you are getting only custard or concretes (their equivalent of a blizzard) then you can stand in the B-Line or Express Line. If you want burgers and dogs and shakes, suck it up and get in line. I suggest coming with people who are good conversationalists or bring a book or crossword. Maybe not a good idea for first date awkwardness. Or maybe if you like that kinda thing. We clocked ourselves at 1 hour, ten minutes to place our order. Once our order was placed we waited approximately 3 minutes. Very fast!
Eventually you get to one of the free standing menus. Then someone comes by to give you a taste of custard. Then you get really excited. So what’s the deal with this place? Best shake/burger combo in NYC is the rumor. If you like diner style, no bullshit burgers and dogs and custard, you have to try it. If you can read the menu you will see they have a small but varied selection. They are also reasonably priced for NYC: I got a Shack Burger, Fries and a Black and White Shake for 12.75. Not bad.
Krinkle Kut fries rule. I also found the portions to be just right for someone my size. I snack a lot through the day and when I eat a meal I prefer to be delightfully sated. Like, almost full. But not bursting, bellyache full. This was the right amount of food for that.
So as you can see I got a cheeseburger (Their Shack Burger) with LTMayo. I added ketchup and mustard as well. Good burger. Chargrilled. A bit greasy but not too greasy. Perfectly melted cheese. Not too thick bun. God, I’m salivating thinking about this again. It was really good. The fries were perfect – not soggy, not underdone, not old/stale – just right.
As for the shake…I can tell you a shake made with custard is thick, creamy, delicious, and very pleasing. You really need to suck it up your straw. I like that. I opted for the Black and White shack (chocolate vanilla) because sometimes all chocolate is too much. This was really good. Maybe it could’ve been more chocolately, less vanilla-y, but that’s what I get for not ordering a full on chocolate.
Happy customers!
Can you see the joy in my eyes? Truly, it was a beautiful thing.
So, was Shake Shack worth the long wait? Does it live up to the hype? My clean plate says yes.
This is a tomato-tamarind soup, with pork-crab-shrimp-egg meatballs, served with rice noodles, fried shallots, scallions and water cress. This was my first boot leg attempt at making “bun rieu,” another amazing Vietnamese soup. Typically, there would also be fried tofu puffs, pork blood cubes, shredded iceberg and bean sprouts instead of water cress, etc… But man, it was really good! I’m still eating it on Day 3!
Okay, I will do my best to remember what I did, but the best part of bun rieu is definitely this meat part. These measurements are slightly arbitrary, but it consists of :
- 1 lb peeled, raw and minced shrimp (save the shells for the stock)
- 3/4 lb ground pork
- 1-2 cans crab meat
- 1-2 eggs (depending on how soft you want these feathery meatballs to be. I like them a little firm, so I use 1 egg)
- chopped scallions
- Very Important: 1 can of this shit (it’s minced shrimp/crab soaked in soybean oil with garlic, chilis, other stuff):
The broth, I filled a pot a little less than half way with water, and I started out by boiling the shrimp shells for about 45 minutes, and then I strained it and threw the shells away. I added maybe two more cups of water and added about 3 tablespoons (or more depending on how tart you like it) of tamarind paste to the pot, along with a handful of dried shrimp, about 4-5 plum tomatoes (wedged), and half of a vidalia onion (sliced). Let all this simmer for about 40 minutes or so.
If you want to multitask right now, you can also boil your rice noodles at this point.
The funnest part of making bung rieu is dropping in the meat balls. They do not need to be balls, if anything, the whole point is that they are loose. You can use a cereal spoon and spoon up a spoonful and drop it into the broth. Do this until your bowl of raw meat is empty. They will not take very long to cook. Once they are, you turn the heat down very low just so it stays warm, and you can season it with fish sauce and white sugar.
Pour the broth over rice noodles, top it with fresh ingredients such as bean sprouts, shredded lettuce, scallions, mint, shiso, whatever. Finally, I like to squirt with a wedge of lime, and add a little spoon of these two things right before I chow it down:
That first sauce is made with millions of ground up teeny tiny little shrimps that look something like this:
Oh yeah and of course they are fermented until they smell REALLY INTENSE!!!!!!!
SO GOOD!!!! Also try using this shrimp sauce as a dip for sour apples, it’s really really amazing.
So, someone from Dublin Ohio had sent me a Facebook message about a very special sweet potato that they had found at their local grocery store, and thought it was a good idea to send it to me. I agreed, and I didn’t believe she would really send me, but sure enough, it arrived today in a Fed Ex box. First I was scared because I forgot about this interaction, and I had no idea, nor was I expecting a package from anyone. It could have been a bomb or poison, or a variety of other things, but to my sheer delight, I was welcomed with such a wonderful gift. Luckily I had a digital camera at hand to document my reaction. Thanks Danny B for taking these pictures.
I thought instead of eating it, I would like to have it live forever. So I put it in my pot so that it can grow and flourish for as long as I am alive. Thank you sweet potato fairy, for giving such a unique potato baby.
