Tastefully Overcaramelized

Abe says

Well it’s basically like Ann told it. I bought a place, a loft on the Hill, and we’ve moved in (goodbye, gorgeous roof); a multiweek undertaking whose epic scope was utterly lost on me until a week before closing. My job in the glamorous world of software has also alternated between busy and crushing. Ann graduated. The short of it is, in front of the sympathetic nerve firing squad food really wasn’t on my mind. Thankfully, I have found some pictures to show for all of it.

6/4: Pulled pork sandwich from Maximus Minimus, during a food blogger event hosted by Sugar Mountain, owners of Beecher’s and Pasta & Co. among others. (I didn’t know it was all the same people, did you?) We met some awesome fellow bloggers, of Sonja’s Kitchen, Loving Local Food, and Mary Eats, and saw Hungry Grrl again. The $5.50 sandwiches are pretty delicious, although I think I wish there was more pork fat in there.

6/7: Old School Frozen Custard. We badmouthed them but never posted our followup once we’d visited. They, too, have cones with cleverly folded tips, which I certainly approve of. It was tasty but didn’t knock our socks off. The vanilla flavor was basically a mass-market vanilla and not any trendier vanilla bean or somesuch, but I don’t consider that bad. There are times when that’s just what you feel like. Overall the focus on classic flavors and hot dogs could bring them wider appeal, but while I have seen the place busy I have yet to see long lines snaking out the door.

6/19: Our introduction to the R2 commercial food processor at Jani. We were impressed. My Cuisinart is jealous.

6/27: The aftermath of a sauces-themed dinner party, which included my first hollandaise (embarrassing, but delicious) and a truly good slow roasted pork shoulder. It was all very tasty but wasn’t cohesive. The variety of leftovers bits, though, was one for the ages.

7/10: Scallop seviche at Anchovies and Olives. The outdoor seating is beautiful, at least in July.

7/14: Bastille Day wine tasting at Licorous. Cotechino monster says, “Bonjour!” It is a fresh pork sausage that was made in-house, in this instance with currants for eyes. A week later we attended an invite-only “John and Wiley’s Counter” at the bar which was huge fun. About half the courses came with wine pairings — most excellently the other half with cocktail pairings. The word was that they’re thinking of opening the events to the public.

8/7: Sidewalk eggplant. 15th Ave. Does anyone pick and eat them? They’re totally ripe.

8/11: Ground cherries and a new camera. I know we haven’t been hiding our point-and-shoot photos very well, but I at least have been trying. The new one is an Olympus E-P1 and so far it’s great, although we’re still figuring it out (please forgive the depth of field in the mean time). Our trusty compact PowerShots will continue to prevail in many places, but I’m excited at the mere prospect of setting the aperture and using an actual macro lens. ALSO. Ground cherries are not real cherries, but are related to tomatoes and tomatillos and taste of tropical fruit. Pretty clever if I say so myself. We got them from the Broadway farmer’s market but for the life of me I can’t remember which farmer.

8/12: “Jaime’s Speakeasy”, another invitation event (no Ann this time), this time at work. The chef was previously sous chef at Restaurant Zoë, but these she days does “chef’s tables” and now “speakeasies” for lunch on Wednesdays, pretty much putting the Googleplex cafeteria to shame. Here they’re plating really, really good duck confit and cauliflower tortellini with sage brown butter and chevre.

Also you know, come to think of it I think we ordered wine at the Bastille Day event and never picked it up. Ahem.

Filed under: Miscellaneous by Abe on August 23, 2009. Tagged with: appliances, ceviche, cotechino, eggplant, ground cherries, jaime mullins, licorous, maximus minimus, old school frozen custard, prosciutto, Sauces, scallop.